Time seemed to slow. The tip of the clone's short sword was inches from Takson's chest. He couldn't dodge. He couldn't block.
But the fatal blow never landed.
Whoosh!
From the corner of the room, a heavy, spinning blur tore through the air. The battle-axe, which had been lying uselessly on the floor, defied gravity. It shot back toward Takson as if pulled by an invisible tether.
CLANG!
The axe head interposed itself between Takson and the sword, blocking the thrust with perfect precision.
Then came the sound of shattering glass.
The clone's sword, a construct of pure mana, could not withstand contact with the "Mana Breaker" enchantment. Upon hitting the axe, the blade instantly destabilized. It didn't just break; it dissolved, crumbling into harmless motes of violet light.
The axe, its momentum spent, drifted gently into Takson's waiting hand.
"What the...?"
Takson stared at the weapon in his grip. He hadn't summoned it. It had moved on its own. Teacher... just what kind of upgrades did you give me?
The clone was equally stunned. Its weapon was gone, its attack thwarted, and its posture was completely overextended. It stumbled forward, its momentum carrying it right into Takson's personal space.
It was a fatal error.
"You..."
Takson didn't swing the axe. He was too close, and he was too angry.
"Don't you dare..."
He pulled back his right fist, the iron gauntlet gleaming in the dim light.
"...wear her face!"
CRACK!
His fist connected squarely with the clone's nose. It was a heavy, brutal cross. The clone's head snapped back, and its feet left the ground.
But Takson wasn't done.
Before the clone could fly backward, Takson's left hand shot out, grabbing its arm in a vice-like grip. He yanked it back toward him.
BAM!
He drove his left elbow into the same spot, smashing the clone's face again.
"This is for mocking me!"
Smash!
"This is for the ambush!"
Smash!
"And this is for making me look bad in front of Teacher!"
It became a rhythm of violence. Punch, pull, elbow. Punch, pull, elbow. He pummeled the clone dozens of times, his rage fueling every strike. The clone, caught in the relentless combo, couldn't find the footing to resist.
However, Takson soon realized something.
His knuckles were aching. He was hitting the clone with enough force to shatter stone, but the face beneath his fist wasn't breaking. It wasn't bruising. It felt like hitting a wall covered in soft rubber.
The clone had no biological structure to damage. It felt no pain. And although the "Mana Breaker" effect of his axe, which was touching the clone every time he struck, was disrupting its mana flow and preventing it from casting spells, its physical durability remained absurdly high.
It was a stalemate. He was beating it senseless, but he wasn't killing it.
I can't punch this thing to death, Takson realized, his breath coming in ragged gasps. It's just a magical doll. It's too tough.
He needed to end it. Now.
With a roar, he swept the clone's legs, slamming it onto its back. He planted a heavy boot on its chest to pin it down.
"I know what you are," Takson growled, looking down at the blank, emotionless face that mirrored his teacher's. "You're just a spell. A construct."
And he knew exactly how to deal with spells.
He raised his battle-axe high above his head. The "Mana Breaker" enchantment hummed, the blade shimmering with disruptive energy.
"Disappear."
He brought the axe down.
CRUNCH.
The blade cleaved through the clone's head. There was no resistance, no bone to break. The moment the enchanted steel made contact, the mana holding the construct together unraveled.
The clone didn't die; it simply ceased to be. Its form collapsed, dissolving into a pile of grey dust that scattered across the floor.
Takson stood alone in the corridor, his chest heaving.
"Hah... hah..."
He lowered his axe, wiping the sweat from his brow.
"Victory."
….
[Subject 'Takson': Combat concluded. Victory confirmed.]
The system notification chimed in my mind.
"Reminder: System, I possess my own visual sensors. I am already watching him," I muttered, pushing myself off the massive stone door I had been leaning against.
[Understood. Shall I disable future combat notifications?]
"Negative. Leave them on."
[Acknowledged.]
I dusted off my shoulder. Takson had passed his test. He had overcome his own weakness and defeated a copy of his master, or at least, a copy of the mask I wore. That was sufficient.
There was no need to waste any more time.
I looked up at the colossal stone gate that barred the way to the final chamber. Standing just over one and a half meters tall, I looked like an ant next to it. But I knew that the power humming within my chassis was enough to turn this entire mountain into dust.
I turned my back to the door and walked away.
Ten meters. Twenty. Fifty.
I stopped.
Why bother opening it?
I raised my right arm. The skin retracted, metal plates shifted and locked into place. In a blink, my arm transformed into a long, red-barreled cannon, pulsating with the golden energy of the Dimensional Engine.
"Endo Armament: Activate"
"All-Directional Cross"
….
Inside the Boss Chamber:-
The room was vast, filled with piles of gold and jewels that shimmered in the dim light. At the center sat the Spiegel, the Water Mirror Demon, a shapeless, reflective mass.
Standing guard before it was the Prime Clone.
It was the strongest copy the demon had managed to produce. It wore my face, wielded a mana-forged copy of Sandalphon, and had reinforced the door with every locking spell in its arsenal.
It stood in silence, processing the flood of bad data coming from the dungeon.
Its lesser clones? Dead.
Its summoned monsters? Erased instantly.
Takson? Status unknown, but his signal had vanished from the clones' senses.
The Original? Completely untraceable.
The Prime Clone felt a flicker of something close to anxiety. It was trying to mimic my strategies, spawning monsters and setting traps, but everything it did was countered instantly.
It realized, with the cold logic of a machine, that it was outmatched. It lacked my hardware. It was a software emulation running on a potato.
It stared at the massive stone door. It was sealed tight. Nothing could get through without triggering the alarms.
Crack.
A spiderweb of light appeared on the surface of the door.
The Clone blinked.
Boom.
The door didn't open. It didn't even burst inward. It simply ceased to exist.
A blinding, golden light swallowed the entrance. It moved faster than thought, faster than magic.
The Prime Clone didn't even have time to raise a shield. The light washed over it, dissecting its mana structure, erasing its physical form. Behind it, the Spiegel didn't even know it was under attack before it was vaporized.
The beam of pure energy roared through the chamber, incinerating the treasure, the walls, and the very bedrock of the mountain.
It didn't stop there.
It tore through the outer wall of the labyrinth, punching a hole straight out into the open air. It screamed into the sky, a pillar of gold piercing the clouds.
For a single second, the sky turned a brilliant, blinding gold.
Then, the light faded.
All that remained was a perfectly smooth, circular tunnel bored through the heart of the mountain, glowing with residual heat. The clouds above had been punched open, leaving a perfect circle of blue sky.
The shockwave rolled out across the land, shaking trees and rattling windows in villages miles away.
And far, far to the north, in a castle shrouded in perpetual darkness, eyes opened in the gloom.
The demons of the Demon King's castle looked out their windows, staring at the golden scar fading in the southern sky.
Something new had arrived.
….
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