C_Mantis
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Chapter 204
🕑 Added 2023-01-09 20:00:03 +0000 UTCOk lets have that talk.
This is important so please read. Seriously.
So the next chapters are the folded reflection lives. No surprise there. But. BUT I wrote those a little differently. Normally I have an idea for how I want to write a chapter and crank it out but the reflection lives are a chance for me to play with our known characters in mini little worlds and not ruin cannon.
What does that mean for you the reader? Welppp so far I have written over 26k works on the lives and I'm not done yet with at least another 5k in the pipe to finish them.
Does that mean we are going to have 6 chapters of reflection lives? No.
You read that correctly. I don't want to slow the story down that far and or as one of the beta readers but it "Spend time on words that don't ultimately matter." And normally I'd agree and cut it down but I think its good for the story to slow down a little and experience this with our cast. (Mostly Matt but the others get some page time). I also just like how they turned out and think they make us closer to our protagonists which I contend means the words mean a lot even if they aren't 'real world' events.
To that end all of the reflection lives will come out in at MAXIMUM two and a half chapters. That means by the end of the third chapter (207) we will be out of them and onto the normal story.
Well how are you going to fit all of those words you said your wrote in those two chapters Mantis? Long Chapters. The next chapter for Friday the 13th will be at minimum 12k.
Does that mean we will be getting two chapters and then you are going to count it as three or more chapters Mantis? No, I'm working my butt off to get these chapters out but not slow down our release scheduled. Consider this me just eating the time it spent to write 25k+ words.
Speaking of breaks we will have at least a one chapter break at the end of this arc so I can plan some. It's a break for you but more of a planning period for me and the beta readers so we can hash out the next arc for you guys but I don't want to make it long as we just had a week break at the start of this year.
TLDR; If you are excited for the lives you are going to get some beefy chapters. If you couldn't care less they won't take long so don't worry about getting weeks of content you don't care about.
If you are still reading at this point enjoy the chapter.
Chapter 204
Susanne looked at the copy of herself and knew this would be a brutal fight. Not that fighting against a reflection of yourself was ever easy.
As she sized herself up, she pulled off her mask and her reflection did the same. They looked into each others’ eyes, a burned and scarred gaze meeting unblemished skin, and both of them knew that they could win. She wasn’t fighting Queen here, she was fighting Susanne, and there would be no tricks to hide that truth. If she couldn’t face this reality, if she couldn’t best her past, she didn’t deserve to be here.
Liz and Matt had doubts when Susanne refused any extra potions beyond the initial dose and all of the talismans, but Aster seemed to understand, at least a bit. This place was less personal to them. It was a place to find treasure, gather new skills, and grow stronger. Nothing more.
Susanne briefly glanced down at their respective armors. Her reflection still had the functioning growth armor, while she was stuck with some looted armor from a few floors ago that mostly fit her thanks to Matt’s efforts. The growth armor was potent, and her own was somewhat more geared towards defending against ranged attacks, but that ultimately didn’t matter.
The strength of her convictions and mastery of her blade would decide this fight, not some fancy suit of armor.
She had been hoping for Folded Reflections since she had heard about it. The reward was incredible, obviously, but that was the least important part. Susanne needed to prove to everyone, most importantly herself, that she would forge herself anew with each challenge conquered, each skill mastered, and each enemy slain. That she could wade through a planet filled with death and walk out the other end unbroken, at a Tier few others had. There was nothing more direct to prove that than fighting your own past, literally for the challenge, and overcoming it for the reward.
She was here to test her mettle and her metal, to prove that she would always come back stronger and batter down any threat or challenge. To prove that she wouldn’t let her past define her, that she would never back down, and that she would never falter.
Her manifestation was escalating in power as she focused, and as it reached new heights, both she and her clone activated [Iron Skin] at the same time, with the metal racing out from her steel gray eyes to cover her body.
The final fight of its life had begun.
Her clone opened with the same move it almost always did- slash its blade to turn invisible and cut through space. It was odd learning that she was predictable, but she’d been able to adjust from the last half-dozen times that she had fought her reflections, whereas this copy hadn’t.
She swung out with her own sword, aiming at the spot she predicted her copy would make an appearance.
Her blade impacted with something, and she knew she had been correct.
The copy reappeared as [Cracked Second Wind] knit its flesh back together, and lunged at her, this time fully visible.
She backed up and blocked the blow to savor the feeling of her Concept manifestation clashing with another.
It wasn’t like the feeling of a blade hitting another blade. Instead, it was similar to when she battered down someone else’s Concept, though not quite identical. A manifestation was more solid than that.
A tiny bit more real.
She had fought others with weapon manifestations a couple of times at Carol’s behest, but they were all at a much greater Tier than her, and she hadn’t been able to feel this unique sensation then. Her previous reflections had given her a similar experience, but none of them had quite so solid a Manifestation.
Each time she experienced the clash, she was able to refine her blade, feeling its weaknesses like never before through her reflection.
Two inches from the top of her blade on the left side, there was a spot that had stung like a sore tooth during the impact.
Taking that knowledge, she polished her manifestation to remove that weakness, even as she threw herself at her Minkalla copy.
At first, they fought with purely their mundane blade skills, but that only lasted until she forced her copy back through her potion enhanced strength, and it decided to cast [Wind Cutter] at her.
Susanne cut the attack in half with a single swing of her blade, then followed up with [Dash] and used the boost in speed to close the gap between herself and her copy.
As she brought her blade around in a heavy swing, she smiled as her copy back stepped just enough to dodge the blade while preparing to rush back in. But instead, Susanne cast [Mana Blade] to extend her weapon an extra foot.
Her reflection seemed surprised by the move, but it summoned a second copy of her Concept manifestation and blocked the now larger descending blade. Meanwhile, the fake Susanne’s main blade lunged forward, trying to impale her original.
Using her own Concept to create a second version of her blade as well, Susanne blocked the lunge and cast [Counter]. The spell repelled the blade with explosive force, and Susanne used her main blade to cut out in retaliation, but her reflection used its own [Counter] to block the blow.
Not wanting the skirmish to fall into a stalemate of [Counters] until one of them ran out of mana, Susanne cast [Fire Burst] and allowed the explosion of flames to wash over her copy.
While it worked, the reflection had its own defenses, even if it didn’t have [Fire Manipulation], so it was only singed by the blast.
Her reflection cast [Dash] and [Hypersonic Edge] as the flames washed away.
[Fleet Feet] enhanced her footwork, and she sidestepped and then ducked under the swipe of her copy’s weapon while lunging forward and casting [Mana Thrust].
She nearly cut the reflection in half with the attack, but it managed to block her blow, so they fell back into a stalemate.
Susanne retreated a few steps and cast [Momentum Overcharge], allowing the spell to steal some of her speed, and when it had a good bit of energy stored up, she cast [Dash] to close the gap once again.
As her blade came around, she unleashed [Momentum Overcharge], and when her blade impacted her copy’s, she overpowered the upraised sword and smashed both of their blades into the copy’s chest.
She was sure that it was going to kill the copy, but [Phantom Armor] sprung up and took the brunt of the blow, to her irritation. Susanne definitely hadn’t had the skill active when they entered the floor, which meant it must have cast it sometime during this very fight. But that told her that the mirror was lower on mana than she was.
That was useful information.
Rushing forward, she brought her sword down in a massive, overhand swing, but her mirror was able to roll out of the way and cut space to dodge the blow, despite Susanne trying to lock the battleground down with her Concept.
Still, she had compounded her few advantages into a distinct lead as she took off after her copy and started chasing it down.
She just needed one more blow to land in order to finish it off, and could see its end drawing near.
It felt right.
Blade fights were brutal and short.
Decided in a single blow.
Just how she liked it.
***
Aster growled at her copy.
She was not a happy fox.
She had fought. She had been hurt. She had been injured.
But never like this before.
And it made her angry.
Matt had been hurt.
Liz had been hurt.
Susanne had been hurt.
And she hadn’t been able to turn the tide.
Normally, she was more than happy to play the spoiled princess when she could, even if it was mostly in jest.
After their brutal loss, she intended to change that.
No more miss nice fox.
They started off with an [Ice Spear] each, which collided in midair to create a thin cloud of snow between them. A dual [Wind Lance] collision blew that away, leaving them in the same position as before. Elemental mages of the same type often stalemated each other, as the increase in control and power of said element got better the closer it was to the other mage, making defense much easier than offense. That basic dynamic was doubly true for support mages like Aster, who had far more ways to deflect, avoid, or block damage than deal it out.
Fighting against a copy of yourself made that problem so much worse, as there were hardly any tricks or spells that one side could exploit for an advantage. Aster had improved over her time on this floor; they all had, but it was quite difficult to overcome the inherent disadvantages she needed to contend with in order to wound her copy.
Her frozen earth elemental, courtesy of her Boon, allowed her to make unusual types of ice. With her tiara turning [Create Ice] into a minion, the creation lumbered forward as she summoned it into being. Matt had helped her cast the spell a dozen times to strengthen it to the maximum before they took on the boss fight, and she hoped it would help turn the tide.
Her copy threw a barrage of [Ice Spear]s at it, but her minion just absorbed them all without so much as a crack appearing on its surface.
She growled and threw out a flurry of [Wind Slash]es, which her copy was able to dodge and dispel even as it was predominantly occupied with the elemental. She battered at her copy’s Concept with her own, though even with her improved strength in that area, she was still so much better at keeping things from changing than she was at directly hurting someone. Her copy eventually summoned a [Wind Lance] elemental to challenge her elemental, and the two beings began their clash.
Hers was far stronger than her copy’s, as it had been reinforced as much as the tiara would support before she entered, but it was kept busy with blocking its spindly and agile counterpart from reaching her. How long their fight would take, Aster wasn’t sure, but her summon would definitely win in the end.
Still she intended to help it.
With a thought, she sent a touch of mana into the carpet of talismans that Matt had made for her and attached to her armor before this fight.
Spells shot out in all directions before curving around and targeting her mirror self.
As the spells landed, Aster took painful smattering of [Hail] on her wounded skin, but she scored a single good hit with [Ice Bullet] on her copy’s front leg as it tried to frantically dodge the rain of spells.
If she hadn’t been angry before, a reminder that her copy still had intact fur and an actual tail drove her over the edge.
She rushed her copy with wind lengthening her stride, and they both traded spells ever more quickly as the distance closed. Ice and air collided alarmingly close to her face, but she was focused on her target and her plan. A single [Ice Spear] scored a line down her flank, and that was all she needed to end this fight for good.
Aster froze up quickly and started focusing on dodging as best as she was able while fighting against her copy’s Concept. Standing barely five feet from her clone meant that she had to be absolutely perfect to avoid each strike, but dodging was a skill she had honed for decades.
Sadly, so had her copy, meaning neither of them was actually able to hit the other.
An [Ice Bullet] flew through where she had been a heartbeat before as she dodged left. At nearly the same instant as her paws left the ground, she teleported to the right, just beyond where her copy would see or expect, and lunged at her copy’s neck with [Chomp].
The [Ice Spear] from her copy flew harmlessly through the space Aster would have been occupying if she hadn’t teleported through all the ice and snow they had created around them.
Anger infused her and powered her jaws.
Rage at her helplessness.
No more.
Shaking her head back and forth as hard as she could, she felt bones snap in her copy but she didn't let up for even a moment. Aster, strengthened by Matt’s talismans and Liz’s potions, was substantially stronger than her duplicate.
Her old self.
She, and therefore it, was tougher than that, and refused to die so easily. Aster responded by throwing its wounded body to the side, and directed her elemental, as it rejoined their battle, to crush it to a pulp.
Repeatedly.
Until she felt Genesis Energy rush into her as the reward for her victory.
Proof it was dead.
Aster was already a step away when she noticed a skill shard forming on the ground where her copy had been.
She snapped it up and stored it away as she slinked over to the edge of the cavern while she waited for the others to finish their own fights. Once she settled into a comfortable spot, she pulled out a few healing potions and [Bandage] talismans.
While she had complete confidence in the others and their abilities, she wanted to be able to pounce in and help out if they emerged from their battles wounded or vulnerable.
No one would hurt her friends any more. Not if she could help it.
***
Liz thrust her spear out and took her copy in the side, but was unable to draw blood from the single hit.
She pulled her spear back as the copy thrust forward with its own spear, and used the haft of her weapon to block the blow.
She had already learned the futility of using blood spells against herself.
Before either of them were able to get the spell to land, the target would be close enough to easily wrest control of the opposing spell with their own [Blood Manipulation], rendering it useless. Liz did have an advantage over her reflection in that she knew a few more tricks about controlling an opposing blood mage’s spells. It wasn’t that different from stealing control over fire skills, which she’d had plenty of practice with as Torch.
It was a good thing they all came into the boss fight prepared with a handful of Matt’s offensive talismans. With them, she was able to gain an advantage by cutting deep into her mirror self’s side.
But Liz was hardly one to go down from a single wound, and neither was her reflection.
She was almost impressed with herself, if she was being honest.
Elizabeth Moore was a hard woman to kill.
Without spells, that left the mirror images deadlocked in a melee fight.
Liz had the advantage there, having drank several of her strongest safe potions before the fight, as well as benefiting from Matt’s boosting talismans. But she, and therefore her copy, was far too used to fighting stronger opponents for those boosts to be a decisive factor. To make matters worse, the longer they went on, the stronger her copy got as it mixed and consumed blood potions. And it was able to utilize even stronger potions than she could.
A sizable amount of her internal arsenal was actively harmful to Liz, where the energy of the potion was too intense for the body to handle, or could result in long-term health problems if left untreated. Normally, she was able to use them in moderation, but with her body constantly at the edge of the healing cooldown at the moment, she couldn’t treat herself properly afterwards.
Meanwhile, her copy had less of an active healing cooldown than she did, and was apparently less concerned about its long-term health, allowing it to push itself further than she was willing. It wasn’t suicidal, but the reflection fought as if Luna was there with a medical team ready to undo anything it did to itself in the name of victory.
Knowing she needed to change the paradigm of their fight, Liz thrust forward once more with a [Fire Weapon] and [Water Bullet] pair.
The water spell hit her copy in the shoulder, but its armor blocked most of the attack while she used her now flaming weapon to push back the copy.
It worked for a moment, but her mirror countered with [Fire Manipulation] and tried to push the weapon away from itself using the fire on the blade as leverage.
Instead of fighting that force, Liz let the copy push the tip of the spear away and used that momentum to spin her weapon around and bring the butt into the copy’s left arm.
She felt the crack where her weapon hit the armor, but didn’t think it was enough to break the arm. If the positions were reversed, it probably would have broken her arm, but her healing cooldown had been mostly over when she entered the floor, and it was only the fights here that had aggravated the regrown limb to its current state.
The copy formed its spear into a halberd with blood iron, then started building [Blood Charge] on it. Liz responded with a quick [Blood Spear], but the copy sidestepped it and dashed towards Liz with power that burned through its mana and potions.
She tried to retreat and let her copy expend resources while she defended, but it started pouring even more power into catching up to her, leading into a horizontal sweep with the halberd. It was an enormous expenditure for one blow, and Liz knew she couldn’t take it head on.
Quickly summoning [Blood Polearm Block], six floating blood copies of her spear appeared next to her. She formed her own spearhead into a partisan, with all of the blood copies getting in formation to block the approaching blade.
The halberd’s head virtually exploded with blood as [Blood Charge] went off, destroying three of the six copies of her weapon and damaging the head of her material spear.
Hitting her with the halberd wasn’t the goal, however, as her copy dropped the weapon almost immediately. It took advantage of Liz’s spear being out of position by drawing a dagger and charging her directly, seeking to stab her in the neck.
Liz blocked with both of her hands they tumbled to the ground, where she and her copy struggled in a power enhanced stalemate for a moment, until she wrapped her leg around her mirror’s and twisted with all her might.
That sent them rolling just far enough for Liz to get on top and send the dagger flying.
As she was about to extricate herself, her copy interlocked their arms and tried to twist Liz back to the ground.
Pain laced up her left arm in an arc of fire as her far-over-cooldown arm protested the treatment, giving her copy the opening it needed to put her in a headlock and pin her to the ground.
Liz flailed with her good right hand, trying to punch the copy even as it was behind her. She summoned blood, but was countered because of how close they were. She cast [Blood Ragdoll] to no avail, and in the time where her blood was out of control, her copy took advantage of the weakness to transition from the headlock to pinning her to the ground. The copy had apparently noticed the weakness in her left arm, and had grabbed it with both hands, shoving her to the ground underfoot as it attempted to tear her arm off at the shoulder.
Her arm screamed in pain, but Liz resisted the urge to make any more than a pained grunt as she struggled to escape. Her every action only worsened the pain, and slowly and steadily, her copy began ripping her arm off. She needed to think, come up with something, but the pain was debilitating. She mentally reached towards her core to Tier up, damn the power loss.
Then, her mind settled on another option, and she went for it.
Her arm gave way halfway up the forearm, tearing a ragged stump up to the point where it had been regrown not a month earlier, and Liz’s resolve to not scream in pain was broken. Though, she retained enough presence of mind to carry out her plan.
In the instant before her arm tore, she wretched herself away, tearing it early, and in her right hand, she summoned a dagger of her own.
Lunging forward at her mirror as it was still reeling backwards, she drove the blade through a gap in her armor, and into her copy’s neck.
It wasn’t an instant kill, of course, but it did free Liz to roll out of the way, ignoring the knives of pain that accompanied her arm-stump brushing against anything, and recall her spear to hand.
Her copy was busy knitting itself back together, actively holding blood in. The lone evidence of it having been nearly decapitated was a small blood splatter. Liz brought her spear forward, leveraging her single arm in conjunction with [Blood Manipulation] on the blood in its haft to press her mirror self while it struggled not to bleed out.
Its skin began to turn red with the telltale signs of [Blood Rage], but Liz ignored it. That single spell wouldn’t save it from [Hungering Weapon] draining its strength and blood at a rapid rate. She could feel the stolen strength course through her, and leveraged that to drive her weapon deeper into the clone’s body, tearing apart its internal organs in the process.
Liz felt the dying embers of her Concept flare up, but she crushed them utterly as she burned through her mana, wrenching control of all of her reflection’s blood in a single instant. If not for her very recent experience with her personal brand of resurrection, coupled with a day of meditation preparing for this very fight, she wouldn’t have been able to stop it. But her brushes with death had pointed out all the ways in which she was still oh so very mortal.
The flames guttered out, and Genesis Energy rushed into her, signifying the end of the fight.
She took to her feet and used the newly-unfettered [Blood Manipulation] to staunch the bleeding of her ragged stump, casting [Bandage] to try and reattach the limb.
The spell didn’t take, instead simply capping off her left arm. She wasn’t surprised, her arm had been so far over cooldown that it barely even counted as hers, so far as her buff spells went. That it had been ripped off only would have exacerbated the issue.
With a flick of her powers, she stored the limb inside her spatial ring.
She would hopefully be able to get it reattached when they left. If not, she’d just get it regrown.
But it would present a serious problem for the rest of her time in Minkalla.
Aster was waiting for her as the mists faded, and ran up to her while asking if she was alright. Liz wasn’t, but she had already triaged herself, so she just nodded.
She was down an arm, but she’d live. It hurt, but she’d probably had worse? At the very least, her missing hand wasn’t hurting, as [Bandage] kept her stump from aching too much.
For now, all they could do was wait for Matt and Susanne to finish. Liz suspected that Susanne would be done first, as Matt had too much of his style predicated around long, drawn-out contests of endurance for anything else.
***
Susanne [Dash]ed forward and cut through the [Earth Wall] that appeared in front of her and cast [Sword Gale] the instant she was through. This fight had lasted far longer than she intended, but she had learned something about herself.
She was pretty good at running away when she needed to, and didn’t have enough direct chasing or binding methods to prevent it. At least, not against herself.
Flurries of sharp ribbons of air whipped around her, only to be blocked by the copy’s [Shadow Armor], but Susanne hadn’t cast [Sword Gale] for the direct damage.
Instead, she reached out with her new [Earth Manipulation] and sent the particles of dirt that her attack on the wall had created at her mirror self in a stream.
For an instant, her copy flinched back as the surprise attack hit her in the eyes, and that was when Susanne moved.
Cutting the distance between her and her copy, she appeared next to it, but instead of directly attacking, she cut the air once more and used her boon to vanish for a moment.
Stepping more directly in front of her copy, she avoided the two slashes it cut out with, and then miniaturized her greatsword to something closer to a longsword. With the extra bit of speed it afforded her, she thrust forward and through her copy's chest, twisting and pushing at her Concept to make the attack even more lethal. Every last drop of mana she had went towards empowering the strike, and it cut through her reflection with a ragged, messy tear.
It wasn’t without its cost, though.
While her Concept clone blocked one attack from the reflection’s clone, that left her open to a second blow from the mirror's main blade.
Even with [Phantom Armor] to block most of the blow’s power, it was still fueled with [Hypersonic Edge], and cut into her current armor and deep into her left side.
Despite that final blow, her copy died, and out of its body dropped a material version of her greatsword.
That almost seemed insulting in some weird way. Minkalla must be taunting her with a weapon she’d never use.
Picking it up, she placed it into her storage ring and hobbled over to where Liz and Aster waited. She dropped to the ground next to them, and stared at the bank of mist that was undoubtedly where Matt remained locked in his fight.
“Any idea how long this is going to take?” she asked.
Liz and Aster shared a glance. “Two defense-focused tanks with no mana constraints?”
Susanne sighed and started wrapping her wound.
They should have had Matt leave the house out before they fought. She might have been able to get a nap in.
***
The explosion sent Matt’s copy flying, but it caught itself in midair by utilizing a wobbly Concept, and dove back towards Matt while unleashing a barrage of fireballs. Matt raised a [Bulwark] inches in front of his copy, tanking the [Fireball]s against his armor as the reflection narrowly avoided slamming into the immovable barrier by teleporting to the other side of it.
Matt greeted it with a column of lightning almost as thick as his arm, but the copy raised its own [Bulwark] and blocked the talisman’s effect.
The buffs Matt had applied to himself at the start had worn off a long, long time ago, and he was even almost out of talismans entirely. Amusingly, he now had more talismans in his two Aurora Lance arrays than he did across all his other talismans and arrays combined.
He judged his copy wasn’t much better off, and was perhaps even down part of an Aurora Lance, using some of the feeder talismans as makeshift, lesser attacks. Matt’s left arm hung limply, suffering from both a sprain and a dislocation he hadn’t had the chance to fix, and missing half the fingers on its hand besides. His own copy seemed hellbent on finishing what Susanne’s reflection earlier in the floor had started. It had also disarmed him of his two growth rings, but he could retrieve them later.
If not for [Endurance], he and his mirror copy would have collapsed from simple exhaustion minutes… hours… days ago? He had no idea how long this had been going on, but he’d long since exhausted every trick he had prepared for his clone, and it had simply turned into a slugging match.
Nearly all of them had worked, but it just wouldn’t stay down. They’d both ended up getting a lot of practice with usurping elemental manipulations, and there wasn’t even a square inch of flat ground to stand on, thanks to all their attacks tearing it up.
If Matt was being poetic, it was a reflection of the two of them. Once pristine ground now broken. Hills and valleys carved out of it where they had used the floor itself as a weapon, but still there. Still functional.
Or, at least Matt was.
His Folded Reflection mirror was finally checkmated.
With a last ditch burst of strength, Matt swept past the reflection with [Air Manipulation] wrapped around him, then threw his Concept at his clone beneath him, shoving it to the ground and pinning him.
Matt followed closely behind, slamming feet-first into his prone reflection, then activating his gloves to lock himself in space. His clone struggled underfoot while throwing spells at him, but Matt was unyielding. It teleported out from the trap, pushing through Matt’s spatial lock, but Matt called his void sword to hand and swung where he knew the copy would appear.
The clone materialized in the path of his attack, blade at his neck and enhanced with everything Matt had left in him.
The reflection finally broke as his copy was decapitated, and the fog around him faded.
Matt groaned in relief, staggered over to the lump of flesh that had formerly served him as three of the fingers on his left hand, and dug out his rings from the bloody mess.
Matt cursed as he saw the result of his copy’s attack. The plain silver band that served as a teleportation focus was cut nearly in half, and he could only find one half of it. His mana aspecting ring, meanwhile, had several of its crystals broken, and the metal itself was bent out of shape.
It was fixable, as the connection his spirit shared with them attested to, and because he still had the physical objects, or at least parts of them. If they ran into a growth item-based reward on floor 7, he could still empower them if he so chose. However, it effectively removed both teleportation and the ability to make new talismans from his suite of options for the rest of Minkalla.
Aster broke him out of his musings as she sauntered over to him with a questioning thought, and he gave her a few head pats in return for her concern with his good arm.
Seeing that his copy didn’t drop anything, he staggered over to his friends and made sure that most of them were ok. He was relieved by his findings until he noticed that Liz was missing her left arm… once again.
“Ahh you ok?”
Almost before he finished asking, she nodded. “Fine. Well not fine fine, but I needed to sacrifice it to give my copy a big enough wound that it couldn’t just [Blood Ragdoll] any attacks I made. Besides, the arm was only half functioning anyway, so it’s not that bad. We’ve got a spare prosthetic anyway, I should be able to manage until we leave.”
With that said, they dispelled the reward distortion. Everyone wanted to leave the floor as quickly as possible.
Out tumbled half a dozen skills, along with a longsword similar to his own, a horse plume helmet, and six upgrade orbs.
Catching the items, everyone agreed it would be best to sort it after their test.
If worse came to worst, one of them might need the increased power if they were unable to wake up from the dreams that the floor challenge would give them.
They stepped through the distortion, and with a mental nod, Matt’s mind was whisked away.
***
Matt opened his eyes to a living room. It wasn’t any particular living room, but rather a mishmash of his own, Luna’s guest living room, and even Travis and Keith’s. The coffee table was undeniably his, though. Six cups rested on it, each in their own unique vessel and their own unique teas.
A fairly plain earthenware mug had a honey sweetened black tea in it, a common breakfast tea in most parts of the Empire which Matt was pretty sure he had a few ounces of left in his house.
The porcelain tea cup with gold filigree had a strongly spiced black tea in it, though there didn’t seem to be any milk available for it to be served traditionally. A similarly decorative bowl sat next to that one, with blue accents the same shade as his mana rather than gold, and it held a strongly caffeinated dark green tea that Matt had never particularly enjoyed, though Liz liked it enough that they usually kept some around.
Next was a white tea served in a ceramic mug that seemed to have a sharpened lip. He was fairly confident that the particular variety had gone extinct a few hundred years ago when the rift that produced it had been destroyed, though he didn’t recall what had caused that.
The final two cups were a normal glass cup with a cold brewed pale green tea that normally had some additional flavorings added, and a strange iridescent bubbling jasmine tea served in an ornate cup and saucer.
As he scanned each cup and tried to unsuccessfully puzzle out what each of their lives might be he gave up.
With a shrug, he brought the first earthenware mug to his lips, and sipped.
Comments
Lorraine V
I wondered if the reflection body parts could be used to replace missing prime parts like Aster's tail and Liz's arm
Kacoo
Wasn't that the planet Matt met Liz on, it wasn't the rifts makeup that was special it was that they hadn't been delved for so long.
Peter Baird
Matt’s teleportation focus must have been cut “cleanly” or “neatly” in half rather than nearly, otherwise he’d have no problem finding the other half
David Stifter
Can we have some fan fiction on these paths :) would be amazing to see the community come up with their own alt lives :) would be an awesome contest best Alt life per character.
Rowsdower
you are correct chapter 172: Things can happen in them which aren’t possible, such as being born in a different Great Power, having a different Talent
Revenice
I could be remembering wrong but aren’t the reflection lives able to be different to the point that you have different Talents.
Conan Whalen-mckain
You should join the discord server. I was checking this out and going to make a post there but ma'am your post is amazing. I am going to post this to the discord as you have definitely thought this out well.
Haikaiko
Getting in on the guessing game! I imagine the mug tells us what the world is like that this Matt experienced, while the tea tells us what Matt himself was like in that world. Like, a shattered cup with a few drops of tepid tea would be a broken environment that he never reached his potential in. - Warm and Homey Mug / Sweetened Imperial Hot Tea (C1) This combo represents a comfortable world where Matt got along by conforming to expectations placed on him. The thing that would calm and comfort Matt the most, would be having his parents still. And the Matt of this world knows / was raised expected to serve the Empire, and once he discovered his Talent he voluntarily chose to become a living mana battery to be used to prevent Rift Breaks (like the one that caused all his friends to lose loved ones, which he feels guilty about since HIS parents survived.) CONCEPT: "I shall never yield." Image of a soldier that gets stabbed and mutilated in an endless cycle, but keeps getting back up. Strongly empowers all buffs, especially defensive or utility. - Fancy Mana-Blue Teacup with Gold Filigree / Rare Silver Rift Tea (C2) This cup represents wealth, which in this world is mana. The tea represents Matt seeing himself as priceless in this world. This is a world where Matt got into a prestigious guild instead of joining the Path, and doesn't have restrictions on how others can help him grow. Which, since the only limiting factor to growth is mana... this Matt is a spoiled rich kid with all the coolest toys. CONCEPT: "Mana is everything." Image of Matt pouring out raw mana, while supplicants approach him to give him priceless gifts in exchange. Secret hubris: one of the approachers is Emmanuel, offering him the entire Empire for his mana. Allows Matt to "spike" his maximum mana in exchange for spiritual strain, and gives him a unique sense that helps him with optimizing his mana usage. - Unadorned Sharp Ceramic Bowl / Subpar Tea (C3) This combo represents a world that is very harsh, into which Matt never reached his full potential. Put simply: in this life, Emmanuel got greedy and decided to shackle Matt for his mana. For the greater good of the Empire, since there is a war looming. This Matt is artificially strong, with every bit of research into mana concentration and cracked skills thrown at him, but never allowed to actually grow as a person. The only reason he went to Minkalla is because he is T14 with no Concept, and Emmanuel decided the risks of the planet were less than the risk of his pet manaling dying before reaching Immortality. CONCEPT: "What I'm here for." Fuzzy image of a black hole with Matt at the center, sucking in objects and people, then later spitting them out stronger. This concept is a Minkalla reward, almost like a bottled concept but stronger. Real Matt instinctively dislikes this one, as it resonates almost entirely opposite with his own core values. Functions as a "normal" internal concept, without anything particularly remarkable about it. - Plain Glass / Golden Iced Tea (C4) This world is remarkably similar to our own. The biggest difference here is Matt himself. This is a solo delver Matt who prides himself on self sufficiency. After he lost Aster in a rift battle, he decided not to join up with Liz, became cold and aloof, works alone so that nobody gets hurt. Except his enemies, who he relishes destroying to prove how strong he is. CONCEPT: "I alone am great." Image of Matt standing relentlessly against the entire world. This concept enhances spiritual strength, to the point that he punches up several Tiers in contests of pure willpower (this Matt had no trouble at T11 in locking down space around the Autumn General, a peak T14 with a burgeoning Intent.) - Pure White Teacup On a Saucer / Bubbling Fragrant Complicated Tea (C5) This tea represents a more innocent world. Matt himself is an exception, straining against the invisible bands. After the Rift Break, rather than corruption and poverty, the governor of the planet personally donated his fortune to help rebuild and compensate. This is a Matt who is grateful, but still conflicted and angry, with no clear target to take it out on. He spends most of his time in rifts, "action therapy" to complement the free therapy he gets as an orphan, attacking the one target that is certainly valid for his unvented hatred -- monsters. And yet, when he discovered his talent for aperology and began to make his own Rifts, he started to wonder if maybe even the monsters aren't as black and white, "always a villain" as he wants them to be. CONCEPT: "I will bottle everything." Ironically, this is a literal "bottle concept." As in, the moment Matt heard of bottled concepts, he had an immediate Inspiration and developed his own concept around being an endless bottle. This concept strongly enhances Matt's dimensionalism skills, such as locking down space, moving between spaces, and to a lesser extent, making rifts more successfully.
C_Mantis
it does. Its upgraded [Reintegration] that doesn't even normal [Reintegration] adds to it
C_Mantis
Matt can teleport with the ring by itself but cant swap with liz cause she got no ring
C_Mantis
which is 10000% fair. As a reader I would do the exact same thing. Which is why i'm putting them out the way I am. Same logic applies to why I rarely do cliff hangers.
C_Mantis
That was a funny one but thats also why I made to to make clear these lives aren't real.
C_Mantis
@Matthew Baird all good. It leads to discussion and thats always fun. Look we got cool math out of it. And yes mana stones are what are keeping teams full between fights. I thought that was obvious and that you were only talking about IN the fights. My bad. Hope things are clearer now
DanielJ
I just remembered, don't the team have Lesser Regeneration? Does that add to the healing cooldown? Because for some reason I thought it didn't, and would have helped with all of that...fully acknowledging I could be completely mis-remembering.
Matthew Baird
So I need to go back in time and not post this comment :-/. After re-reading the story I realized there is an easy way to get mana back by using mana stones and/or a personal mana converter. This is obviously a huge waste of money and resources but if you need the mana it’s better than dying.
Violet
To be fair, it's pretty tenuous math built on some potentially incorrect assumptions. After all, if the 'core' of Minkalla isn't of equivalent height to the infrastructure between each layer of Minkalla, then the ratios I'm using are completely wrong. And if the size of layers isn't constrained by a function of the available spherical surface-area, the entire exercise is pointless.
Nanooki12
How does anyone keep growth items for a long time. It seems that they are rare and just as vulnerable as anything. Everyone fighting someone else would just target the items. And since growth items are rare ish soon no growth items are left.
Clint
I'd guess there will be one with Matt's parents alive -- perhaps in this one he's not motivated to delve and ends up coming to Minkala as an old lvl-14 with no concept. Another where he never got Aster (either he did the smart thing and exited the rift challenge when he saw the orc, or that healer smashed Aster's egg) -- he ends up more of a loner and far more jaded, especially if the egg was smashed. I'd love to see one where he joins Melinda's team, way back in the Playpen. His defense and mana regeneration and her healing with no cooldown would be unstoppable. They could just sit and grind through rifts. If they skipped things like tournaments, there would be no risk at all of other powers discovering them and they could rocket through the Path in record time. The "gilded cage" alternate life is an important one for him to see, since it's one of his driving fears. That version of Matt might even end up in Minkala as a weak lvl 14 with lvl 14 bodyguards trying to get him through the 4th level to get his concept. Most interesting would be to see what kind of person Matt might have become if he'd grown up in the Sects...
Revenice
Wow I was not expecting someone to math out what the average encounter rate should be. Impressive 👍
Tristan R Mitchell
IIRC, he also has a copy of side slide in his outer spirit.
Nicolas Maganto
I seriously hope for you that you 26k words and not works cause that would take some time.... XD otherwise their other lives should get them something in reward if they get theaximum reward (i think i remember they get a little bit of all the effects they developped throughout their reflected lives in their concepts ?). As for finishing as a tier eleven they should get even better rewards right ?
Dominic French
True enough Im just thinking it would be a good way to begin making one or two of them deeper characters for the story down the line rather than mindless indoctrinated super soldiers
Matthew Baird
Yeah but you have to remember they have been indoctrinated with a tier 50 talent. Obviously it’s up to the author if any of them have good reasoning skills and can overcome their brainwashing, but even if one of them does they still have to worry about their team mates. If they show any disloyalty there is a good chance they’ll quickly be killed.
Thibault Sabini
Thanks for the reply! As for matt, i suppose his ring power was still working even though its cut in half?
Rowsdower
Aster got the skill Side Slide a few chapters ago. thats the one Annie got during the pather war thats a short distance teleport with a 2 minute cooldown
Thibault Sabini
Just curious, how can aster teleport? Same with matt if his ring is broken? I feel like i missed something
Obbu
Edit Suggestions: the target would be close enough to easily wrest control of the opposing spell with their own ->the target would be close enough to easily wrest control of the opposing spell with their own (double space) In the instant before her arm tore, she wretched herself away, ->In the instant before her arm tore, she wrenched herself away, but had never drank before as it was nearly extinct ->but had never drunk before as it was nearly extinct
Cora
It's a seed that increases air manipulation and helps with movement skills.
Moonspike
I appreciate that the lives won't be dragged on too long. I don't mind reading about them a lttile bit but that much time spent on something like this would have been excessive and caused me to drop the story to build up a backlog. A couple of long chapter's and then back to progressing the plot though should be fine.
Se7enworlds
I've been looking forward to the alt lives chapters since this this floor was announced so I am hyped!
Vega
Every time I read a book thst has a character undergo multiple lives. I think back to issth and meng hao going through his reincarnations. In one of his incarnations he is the younger brother of a clan heir with a valuable bloodline. And his parents were like your only worth is to spread your bloodline, and the reincarnation doesn’t throw a fit, or fight it. He just goes ok and goes absolutely wild, like his brother is absolutely terrified/creeped out by him because of how seriously he takes his “duty”. This embarrasses the original so much that he wakes up and gets the reincarnation smited iirc.
Tucker Glick
I think I speak for everyone. No complaints about long chapters haha.
Shukketsu
Before even touching the Chapter proper: I could not care less if the lives are "not real" or "real" and if a chapter is double length it can count as a double chapter regardless of content Imho, so THANK YOU for cranking out this ridiculous number of words for basically free but don't feel forced to do it again in the future
John Warren
The ceramic bowl with the sharp edges made me think it is a life where he gave into his anger over what happened to his family.
Lacrimosa
When I got to the part that said TLDR I had to stop because I was laughing so hard. The reason is a old guildie would always say “TLDR, instructions unclear dick in toaster”. Happens every time I see that abbreviation
Violet
They've been largely keeping ahead on floor 6. Floor 4 allowed teams to catch up with them, but they've been re-opening the gap. That said, there are some teams that can keep up with their pace for other reasons and as the floors become smaller due to the shrinking radius of each floor, the space available to the teams that can keep up with them decreases accordingly based on the SA function of a sphere of 4pi(r^2). If we assume that each floor is roughly the same height, the difference between floor 1 and floor 7 is 615.75 cubic height units to 12.57 cubic height units, or roughly 49 times (if you need further proof, note that the 4pi portion of the function cancels out, so the ratio is 7^2/1^2 or 49/1) . As a result, if we consider the set of teams that can keep pace with the party to be of relatively constant size (a somewhat tenuous assumption, but bear with me) then the rate of encounter should, over the course of Minkalla increase that same 49 times. The difference between floor 5 and floor 6 is 9/4 or 2.25. That means that, at in theory, the party should be encountering about twice as many teams on floor 6 as they did on floor 5 and should expect an increase in encounter-rate on floor 7 of four times over their encounter rate on floor 6. if their encounter rate is less than that, you should consider that to be a sign that the set of teams that can keep up with them is shrinking either due to the party's consistent speed or due to elimination (which the party has avoided).
Matt H
I can understand how other groups would have enough for a fight, but how are they maintaining the same pace as Matt's group? Matt's group has more mana throughput, allowing them to fight more frequently (as we saw with how they could delve multiple rifts in a day when most groups would delve every other day) AND they need less total GE to advance and get their rewards. I get that Courtly Warfare destroyed any sort of lead they had, but they don't seem to be gaining a lead again on floors 5 and 6 since they keep encountering people.
C_Mantis
Mostly because the fights we see are short. Mana generally takes 1.5 days to refill from full but that would be a stupid amount to chose if they couldn't get through a single fight without running out of Mana. As we see longer engagement we'll see more of it. Also I'll note tbag to show in the chronicles
Matt H
I've had the same thought, especially on the Taxing Skills floor. We would hear about how Matt & co. would need to ration their skill usage, but their enemies would seem to be operating at 100%. I suppose you could make the argument that we are only shown those who pose an actual challenge, so those who were properly rationing their skills and mana usage. Also, maybe everyone else in Minkalla is burning through a bunch of mana stones to help maintain a similar pace and throughput to what Matt's group is achieving? Although if that's the case, it feels like that somewhat trivializes Matt's talent and concept to just "saving them some money on buying mana stones".
Galaxyace1
I appreciate your work! I look forward to Mondays and Wednesdays every week as I enjoy your story and universe so much.
Dr. Redbush
What’s the Talaria Seed? I either forgot or completely missed that.
adam1
It came up with the Talaria Seed that they'd be splitting up after Minkalla. The Path rules for ascending solo vs grouping up aren't super clear. Melinda and team joined the Path as a team, but Matt and Liz grouped up after they were both on the Path solo.
Ricky Kukowski
doesn't really seem like it to me. I know originally she wasn't going to, and often she feels just a bit separate from the group. they're trying to not make it that way but the effort is evident
Violet
Also, if none of the lives reveal them living in the Empire, that might raise some suspicions, too. After all, Vergil told them that they were experimented on by the Imperials.
Violet
I am very, very excited to see these alternate lives, and the teacup metaphor just made me more excited. For my own purposes and to empower reader speculation, here's a bulleted list of the six teacups, from left to right, if I'm reading things right: - 'Homey' mug of sweet-smelling tea ('normal' black tea served hot) - 'Fancy' teacup with gold filigree (cold tea) - Endless Mana Blue 'fancy' teacup (bubbling, fragrant, complex, maybe-orchid tea? - could be a different cup) - Unadorned ceramic bowl with sharp edges (maybe the rare, rift-made tea with silver stuff swimming in it? - no real reason to believe it is this one, but had to put it somewhere) - 'plain' glass with golden iced tea. - Pure white teacup on a saucer All of the descriptions of the teas themselves is me speculating regarding which teacup they are associated with, but I think I have the first two right, at any rate? Matt is drinking from the 'homey' mug of normal imperial tea, served hot. Speculation-wise, I think the first tea is a world in which Matt's parents lived or he somehow otherwise came to live a 'normal' life. Perhaps it isn't Tier 14 like the others because Matt never reaches Tier 14 in that life? Although I thought all worlds were supposed to be ones where the person entered Minkalla, which would tend to contradict that assumption. Alternatively, it may reflect a Matt whose Concept was related to family or home. The fancy, gold-filigree teacup with cold tea sounds like it may be from a life where Matt joined a guild or otherwise found himself in the golden-cage he fears. Same for the one the same shade as his mana. If the tea with silver things in it is in the sharp, ceramic bowl, perhaps that's a world where Matt focussed on aperology? Alternatively, particularly if that tea isn't in the bowl, perhaps the sharp bowl is from another Great Power. I've got nothing on the last two. Maaaybe the pure white teacup is some 'unaspected' Concept?
Matthew Baird
This story has made such a big deal about Matt never running out of mana. Why don’t our heroes ever run into groups who have exhausted their mana? It seems like this shouldn’t be a super uncommon occurrence. Maybe this could be a way for them to overcome the Federation group number superiority? Just a thought.
Thomas Brusilovsky
Very very excited for the upcoming chapters! This one was great are I am once again stuck waiting for Friday :(
Fleetpanda
It really depends on what lives they’re shown. If they see something like being born and raised in another faction or a life where they see through the indoctrination then there’s a chance.
Dr. Redbush
This is off-topic, but is Susanne going to be sticking around with Matt and Liz after Minkalla? I feel like we’ve invested a lot of time getting to know her that she should be part of the team permanently now. ;)
Dominic French
I wonder if the folded reflections help increase a person's empathy and decrease the effectiveness of cultlike indoctrination from those federation guys
Pixelblade
Here. We. Go!
Azulmar
Looking forward to all the words! Also feeling so bad for the team. I hope they get a week of Melinda's healing after then a few months vacation
Kacoo
That is a really intriguing way to present the lives. I had wondered how you were planning that. I quite like it, only that I now have to go back and theorise what they mean 😔 all I've got so far is a rift builder Matt, a mana battery Matt and a some sort of unsuccessful version of Matt
John Warren
pretty excited to see these alternate lives and the final floor!
Herbwick
Take your time and expand upon whatever you feel is worth it. If we have read this far we obviously love what you write. Even if some of us are getting impatient for the type of qualitative power up we were expecting from minkalla.
C_Mantis
I'm recharged from my break so really I just might need a little planning period with the beta readers is all so the next arc is nice and tightly planned out.
C_Mantis
Idk if I could go on hiatus. Even my one week break I was getting itchy wanting to write lol.
Fleetpanda
Looking forward to seeing the other lives! I wouldn’t say they don’t matter. They aren’t vital to the story, but they’re cool bits of world building and it adds flavor to the new abilities they’re getting! Also that comment about a growth item floor seven has me worried haha let’s go Blood is Thicker!!! Wooo (feels like I’m rooting on a racehorse with these floor selections)
yannick schwende
Thanks for the notice. I am looking forward to the reflection chapters. I love your story. If you find that you need some time off after those beefy chapters please do so, your health is important.
Andrew Pritko
Thank you!!!!!
Max Levigion
Havent Reader the chapter yet. But oh boy was there a big smile creeping up my face. Thanks for writing your butt off !!!!
Luciaron
When you said the next AN would be long I got scared that you would be going on hiatus and instead we got extra long chapters haha! I’m sure it’ll be fun to read some alternate timelines.
