Seris’s mana spread around her body. The space became heavier for a moment.
Just from the amount of mana being used, it was clear how angry she was at seeing a copied version of herself.
Her hand movement disappeared from view.
[Silver Requiem]
Dozens of impact sounds echoed almost simultaneously inside the skull, a sound like metal falling on glass, and every fake line was met with a real strike.
The shadows split, the bone blades cracked, and the incomplete imitation waves collapsed.
In less than a second, all of the Doppelgänger’s attacks were destroyed, but Silver Requiem did not stop there.
Several silver lines passed through the fake version’s body, and narrow cracks appeared on its neck, chest, arms, and legs.
A moment later, black blood and white strands came out of all of them.
The Grave Doppelgänger stepped back, but was still standing.
"That’s how it is." Seris lowered her sword and said with a cold tone.
The fake version lost its smile. It was clear that the monster also realized it had just been humiliated.
Then both creatures attacked at the same time. The Lian version went toward Seris, and the Seris version went toward Lian.
Their movement had a clear purpose. They did not only want to fight their originals.
They wanted to disrupt Lian and Seris’s rhythm, force them to cross each other’s attack paths in the enclosed space.
And perhaps momentarily make them confuse the real and fake versions. But Lian and Seris did not need to talk.
They knew each other’s movement rhythm.
Lian knew when Seris would shift her weight to her front foot before a strike.
Seris knew when Lian would intentionally open his defensive space to lure the enemy into his strike range.
Lian’s Grave Doppelgänger attacked Seris from above with its bone blade.
Seris stepped back half a step without looking.
Lian understood that retreat was not for escape, and now the space was open.
[Thunder Calamity]
Blue and white lightning exploded inside the skull. Lian entered the gap and slammed his fist into the fake version’s side.
The creature was thrown toward Seris.
And she turned at the same time, her sword moving from top to bottom. Lian’s version was forced to bend its body unnaturally to avoid the cut.
At the same moment, Seris’s Doppelgänger reached Lian from behind.
Lian lowered his body, the black sword passed over his head, and the real Seris, without pausing, sent a horizontal strike.
The blade passed over Lian’s head and split the fake version’s chest.
They did not act like two separate fighters. One’s movement was the continuation of the other’s. The gap Lian created became Seris’s strike path.
Seris’s defense sent the enemy to a point where Lian was already waiting.
The Doppelgängers tried to imitate their rhythm, but there was a fundamental difference.
They saw the movement, but did not understand trust.
Seris’s version stepped back a few steps and placed its hand on the wall. The surrounding bone plates began to tremble.
Pieces of the skull separated and came toward its body, placing themselves on its shoulders, chest, arms, and legs.
Within seconds, thick bone armor was formed on the fake body.
Seris attacked its chest with a direct strike. The blade split part of the armor.
But new pieces immediately filled the gap. The fake version formed a smile on its face again, and the young Pendragon lowered her sword slightly.
The mana around her changed, and the glow of King’s Edge became heavier.
Its pressure was no longer only concentrated on the blade. At the moment of contact, it was also supposed to weaken the enemy’s defense.
[King’s Breaker]
Seris took a step forward and sent a direct strike to the center of the bone armor.
At the moment of contact, a deep sound echoed in the space. The defensive plates cracked from the impact point, and the cracks spread through the entire armor.
The defense ability of the structure collapsed for a moment. Her blade, with much greater penetrating power than the bone, passed through the fake flesh and white strands.
The fake version was almost split in half. The two parts of the body remained connected only by a few white strands.
But the heart had still not been destroyed. Seris kept her gaze on the creature’s chest. The strands were most concentrated near the heart.
Unlike the Grave Mimics and Bone Scavengers, this creature’s heart was not behind the skull.
To better imitate the human body, it had placed it at a point near the heart.
On the other side, Lian’s version placed one hand on the ground. Black and white cold spread around its fingers.
The bone powder froze, and icy strands moved along the ground. Then a massive claw of dead ice formed.
Curved, unstable, and full of black cracks, an imitation of Glacial Reaper Claw.
Lian frowned for a moment. The creature was not only reconstructing his movements but also his Skills.
But the fake version had an obvious difference.
It had no cold, no control, and the mana inside it flowed chaotically and decayed. Only raw power that had been imperfectly poured into the form of his skill.
Lian raised his hand.
[Glacial Reaper Claw]
Blue and white cold swirled around his arm. The temperature in the skull’s space suddenly dropped.
The bone powder on the ground froze, and cold vapor formed in the air. Transparent and long claws came out from Lian’s fingers.
Every edge shone like blue glass. The two claws collided. The fake ice did not resist even for a second. Its cracks exploded.
The claw passed through it and froze the Grave Doppelgänger’s arm from fingertip to shoulder.
The fake skin’s color turned to pale blue, and the strands beneath it stopped.
Lian wrapped his hand around the frozen arm, squeezed, and the entire arm shattered into hundreds of crystalline pieces.
The Grave Doppelgänger screamed, but the voice that came from its throat was Lian’s own voice.
His voice of pain, his broken breath. Hearing it from another creature’s mouth was momentarily disturbing even for Lian, and it made him more certain that he had to get rid of this creature as soon as possible.
The creature used that same pause.
Seris’s version, with an almost split body, suddenly appeared behind Lian.
White strands had connected the two halves of its body. Its bone sword rose, and the blade came down directly toward Lian’s neck.
He had seen the attack and could defend, but before he could move, an invisible pressure spread in the skull’s space.
No mana wave was seen, no sound was made, and only for a moment, everything became heavy.
As if a massive will had cast a shadow over the entire space. The black eyes of the real Seris lit up with a deep glow.
[Sovereign’s Judgment]
The fake version’s sword stopped a few centimeters above Lian’s neck.
The command was not reaching the body from the brain. Its will was crushed under the pressure of a spiritual force.
Sovereign’s Judgment did not target the enemy’s body.
It attacked the mind and soul, and for a few seconds, or against weaker enemies even a few minutes, it took away their ability to control their body.
Seris’s version stood like a motionless statue. Its shiny eyes were still open, but no awareness could be seen in them.
The real Seris calmly walked toward it, placing her sword on the creature’s chest.
Right on the heart’s location. Then she said with a cold voice.
"No one can be me, especially not a dirty, possessed monster." The blade moved, and King’s Edge passed through the chest like a silver line.
The black heart inside the body was split open. The fake version trembled for a moment, and then its body collapsed.
Pieces of fake flesh and bone fell on the ground. White strands came out of its remains, but instead of crawling toward the wall, they moved toward Lian’s version.
The Grave Doppelgänger opened its remaining hand. The strands entered its body, and the remains of Seris’s version dried up on the ground.
The creature’s panel changed.
[Grave Doppelgänger]
[Level: 27]
[Rank: Mutated Fallen]
Its body began to change. The right side of its hair turned silver, one of its eyes turned completely black, and half of its face was still Lian.
The other half was an incomplete imitation of Seris.
Its severed arm regrew, but not as a normal arm. A long bone blade took the place of its fingers.
In the other hand, black cold again gathered in the form of an ice claw. The creature was now a combination of both of them. The defeated abilities of the two Doppelgängers had been gathered into one body.
The smile on its half-and-half face returned. This time, its voice was also a combination. Part of the words in Lian’s voice, part in Seris’s voice.
"Now... I’m better, more complete... flawless... and stronger!"
Lian looked at the mutated creature and felt a headache... killing one of them had not only not made things easier, but had also made them harder...
"Maybe I should have tortured it before death so it wouldn’t dare to use my face again." Seris snorted coldly.