It was safe to say that the two duplicate's didn't stand a chance, with four of us pouncing on them. It was the most unfair, mis-matched fight yet, even while we were heavily injured and weakened by the earlier fight.
I jumped towards Isabella, my focus on her. While Zeke decided to deal with the duplicate of himself. I wasn't alone, though. Nico was beside me, while Isabella went to support Zeke.
"You….!"
The fake uttered out a curse I couldnt hear, as I plunged [Fool's Rapier] towards her chest. The duplicate managed to summon a cushion out of the air, slowing down my attack by altering the wind pressure, until it stopped. I grunted in frustration, then tried to kick her, but she managed to move out the way.
Nico was already on her from the side, landing a punch straight to the side of her face, sending the duplicate hurling towards the wall of the tunnel.
The tunnel was too tight and not tall enough to be having a battle inside, especially with another battle of equal intensity happening just a few meters away. It was difficult to adapt to, but I somehow managed.
The duplicate, in a desperate attempt to claw off both of us, altered the air around us to become razor-sharp, cutting away at our skin with every movement we made, every breath we inhaled hurting our lungs, making us cough violently, stunning us momentarily.
The duplicate didn't waste this chance. Quickly kicking Nico off with a kick to his shin, she manipulated the air around her, creating a wind current to push herself away. She was almost close to succeeding, while I haven't even recovered yet from the damage to my lungs.
But she failed. The real Isabella interfered, using a bit of the innate spirit she managed to replenish from that short period of time, she disrupted the air, creating minor mistakes to prevent the fake from being able to generate a wind current— Isabella was stalling, just buying enough time for us to attack.
By now, Zeke was already overwhelming the fake version of himself. What mova said was right, the duplicate's could mimick us, have our memories and abilities, but not to perfection. Just taking advantage of this, Zeke managed to easily overwhelm his own duplicate, nearing his own victory.
I didn't spare time to observe the fight though, I had my own issues to worry about. Nico took a bit longer than usual to recover, since he was the closest to the sharpening wind attack, his lungs were much more damaged than mine. So, I had to take matters into my own hands. To kill this fake.
I already had a plan in mind, on how to kill her.
With the [Fool's Rapier] in hand, I activated [The Zone] making everything around me just fade away, my gaze locked onto the retreating fake of Isabella. With a burst of physical strength, I had rushed forward and lunged towards Isabella. She attempted to sharpen the air around me once again, but I ignored the pain and viciously attacked the fake.
The duplicate had the body of Isabella, whom I had fought before and knew wasn't good at close-combat. Her wind abilities wasn't suited for it and her mastery over it simply wasn't strong enough to be used at close-combat.
I saw the fake attempt to conjure a sword made of wind, but it was crude, compared to the one Isabella made during our fight. So, I didn't even pay it attention. All I did was slice at her face, over and over again. She would dodge, create air cushions to stop me, but it was fruitless against my barbaric physical strength.
By then, I had already backed her up towards the entrance towards the dungeon. Isabella hadn't even realized it. I wasn't just gonna kill her, I was gonna burn her alive for even trying to mimick Isabella.
"Die!"
Even during our exchange between wind sword and Rapier, I managed to back her to the edge. Then, with a final kick. I watched as her face contorted in horror.
"NO!"
I heard her exclaim, as she desperately tried to create an air cushion, trying to clear the smoke out by summoning bursts of wind, but it was fruitless. The fire was too strong and she was falling too fast to be able to flawlessly create a wind parachute.
In the end, all I heard was a scream of horror, as she was devoured by the flames, as I de-activated [The Zone].
'The overseer didn't whisper of the elimination, so they aren't players, after all…'
I mumbled to myself. These duplicate's were obviously not players, but I didn't jump to conclusions without actual confirmation. Now it's been received, without a doubt, that these duplicate's aren't players. Likely part of this mission, or The Mulligan as a whole. Or maybe the person controlling them is a player?
As I was pondering this, Nico stepped beside me and peered down the edge.
"Huh. Gruesome way to kill someone, but nice job."
He said, smirking up at me. I didn't entertain him, though. Instead, I turned towards where Zeke was fighting his duplicate, Isabella has gone back to assisting him.
"Let's go help Zeke."
I didn't wait for an answer, already rushing towards the direction. By the time I had arrived, I realized that my presence wasn't really required. Zeke was easily winning against his duplicate, and with Isabella assisting, it was easy to tell Zeke is gonna end up winning this fight with relative ease.
At that thought, my tense shoulders eased up, a sigh escaping my lips, as I watched Zeke pin down his duplicate. The duplicate had lost an arm, the wooden mask had been ripped off— revealing not a face beneath it, but a bottomless abyss. Since Zeke always wore a mask, the fake was unsure of what to do with the face beneath the mask.
'How interesting. Did the memories fail them? Or did Zeke just never look in the memory himself?'
I turned towards Zeke, who was tying up the fake, by cutting off a cloth from his own clothing, using it as a makeshift rope.
"Why aren't you killing him?"
It wasn't Zeke who responded. Isabella snorted and replied in her usual snarky manner.
"Because we need information, genius. They might know what we need to find the Abyssal Heart."
I widened my eyes, realizing the truth in her words. During the whole ordeal, I had temporarily forgotten about the Abyssal Heaet. But that thing was the entire reason we came down here, the only way to end this mission and return back to Cassie.
Zeke nodded.
"Even if they don't, their boss might."
Nico had arrived a step beside me, observing all of us silently. He seemed to be in deep thought, well of course he was. He must have alot of questions, but kept them to himself tactfully.
I didn't pay him any mind, my gaze locked on the tied up duplicate. The fake Zeke whimpered, as the real Zeke tightened the 'rope' and began to plead.
"Please, please….don't throw me in the fire. Please, I beg you! I'll tell you all you need to know!"
'How realistic…'
I almost felt bad, but it was gone as quickly as it came. Zeke shifted and stopped right before the fake one, folding his arms and speaking.
"Who's you're boss?"
The fake took a breath and calmed down, before replying.
"You mean Lord Tanmi?"
Isabella titled her head to the side, interesed. Even I silently listened. Zeke gave a brief nod, expecting the fake to continue.
"Lord Tanmi is the guardian of the Abyssal Heart which resides here. It sends us, his servants from the abyss, after invaders…."
I widened my eyes, as I took in the implications. This meant that there is more than one Abyssal Heart, atleast it seemed that way from the way the fake spoke. This Lord Tanmi seems to be the guardian of the Abyssal Heart too, this meant we will have to fight it, to destroy it.
Zeke nodded, after a brief pause of having similar thoughts to mine, he said;
"Take us to the Abyssal Heart."
Before the fake could respond, Nico interrupted.
"Hold on, isn't it too soon? Let's rest up first. This will mean we will have to fight this Guardian and from what the duplicate said, it won't be easy."
Zeke gave a brief look over his shoulder towards Nico, studied him for a moment, then nodded.
"Yeah, you're right. Let's rest up before heading out."
Then, he turned towards Isabella.
"Isabella hasn't fully replenished her innate spirit either."
My gaze remained lock on the duplicate, as I recalled something, then I asked;
"How many of you are there?"
I remembered the mysterious one referring to my duplicate as number four. Could there be more than just four? At my question, all three of them seemed to have perked up and began waiting for an answer.
The duplicate of Zeke seemed startled. He hesitated for few moments, before replying.
"There are seven of us."
Isabella's eyes widened.
"Seven? Are you serious?"
The duplicate nodded his head.
"I'm number five. The duplicate of Morgan should be number four. The duplicate of Isabella should be number two. The duplicate of Nico should be number six. The one that saved number four was number one. Number three and seven are the retainers of Lord Tanmi."
All of us was silent, digesting this information. We are heavily out-matched now. It was a good idea not rushing straight Into the lair and trying to destroy the Abyssal Heart, that would of, without a doubt, been the end of us all here.
Zeke titled his head to the side and asked.
"How many are dead?"
The fake thought for a moment, then answered.
"Number two and number six is dead."
My eyes widened. All three of us turned our heads towards Nico, who coughed awkwardly, clearing his throat and explaining.
"I ran into my copy when we separated, Morgan. It was a tough fight, but I managed to kill him."
My eyes narrowed in suspicion. I wasn't really convinced, but I let it slide for now. Whatever the case is, as long as we can have an alliance with Nico, even if temporary, it will boost our chances of succeeding and surviving in this mission.
"Well, alright."
I finally said, turning to the rest of them and giving them a nod. A silent understanding passed through us, we didn't question Nico and Nico didn't question us. Simple as that.
Isabella then turned towards the fake, who squirmed when met with her piercing gaze.
"What do we do with this guy, then?"
Zeke shrugged.
"Keep him around. I'll watch over him."
Isabella stared at Zeke for a moment, then nodded her head. Then, she exhaled deeply. The exhusation finally catching up to her. Alot has happend these last few minutes, even I elt my own exhuastion catching up to me. Mental exhuastion.
"Let's relax for now."
I said, without waiting for a response, I strolled over and settled down on the ground, leaning my back against the rocky walls of the tunnels. Nico kept his distance from us, but was still close by to the group. Zeke, meanwhile, remained with our prisoner.
Isabella walked up to me and sat down beside me. I stared at her in surprise for a moment, as she opended her mouth to speak.
"I don't think i have said this yet, but thank you. For not leaving me behind."
I scoffed and waved her appreciation away.
"I was just doing what you did for me back then. Besides, we can't keep thanking each other for every little thing we do for each other, right?"
Isabella chuckled lightly and nodded her head.
"You're right."
She stared at me for a moment, then turned her head towards Zeke, her voice lowering.
"I never liked gossiping but….did you see Zeke's face behind the mask?"
I raised an eyebrow, sparing a glance towards Zeke, then looking back down at Isabella.
"I did. I kind of get why he wears that mask now…."
I muttered, before closing my mouth. That was a really rude thing to say. Isabella glared at me.
"Don't say that. Let's just pretend we didn't see his face. He must have his reasons."
I nodded my head guilty, scratching the back of my head.
"You're right. I shouldn't have said that…"
Isabella then turned towards Nico, who was sitting a good distance across from us.
"Do you think we can trust him?"
I chuckled and shook my head without hesitation.
"God's, no. He's the last person I'll ever trust, but we do need his strength. So, let's bear with it for now."
Isabella seemed surprised by my answer, furrowing her eyebrows in contemplation, before nodding her head.
"Mhm, we do. Especially after what happend inside that dungeon…."
My gaze subconsciously drifted towards the entrance of the dungeon.
"It could have been one of the guards of Tanmi."
Isabella nodded her head, agreeing with my theory.
"I thought so too. We will have to be very careful of those arrows."
Then, I felt Isabella comfortably lean her head on my shoulder. My muscles immediately tensed, but I relaxed, after seeing that she had shut her eyes.
"Aren't you getting too comfortable?"
Isabella giggled, opening and rolling her eyes, before closing them.
"You got a problem with it? You're the only man that will complain about a beautiful women leaning on you're shoulder."
But then, her voice slowly started to drift off. I was a bit annoyed she was genuinely trying to sleep right now, but I held my tongue and let her relax. She deserved it.
"I'm gonna take a little nap…"
I didn't respond and simply leaned back against the wall, my mind elsewhere, focusing on the future.