The battle was chaos. Fighting yourself was a unique hell. The replicant Echo moved with his own style, predicting his moves. It even tried to use a weak, mimic version of his bloodline power, sending jagged spikes of hardened biomatter shooting from the floor.
Echo met his copy blade-to-blade. Sparks flew. "You're a hollow shell!"
"I am your potential," the replica hissed. "Unburdened by sentiment."
Nearby, Leyla fought her double—a creature of silvered biomatter that moved with her same feral grace. It was like watching a mirror break and then attack you. Clashes of silver on silver filled the air.
Mira was locked in a spatial duel with her copy. Both women warped the geometry of the sanctum, creating pockets of twisted gravity and fleeting portals. It was a silent, deadly ballet of reality manipulation.
Ryn and her replica traded gunfire and hack-attempts, their cybernetics locking in a digital war as fierce as the physical one.
Admiral Nox watched from his dais, a scientist observing a thrilling experiment.
Echo realized they couldn't win by just being better. The replicas were them, tactically. They had to be something more.
He reached through the bond, but not to share power. He sent a pulse of pure, coordinated instinct.
Leyla, now! Feint high!
His Leyla, trusting him implicitly, launched a soaring leap at her copy's head—a predictable move. The replica reacted, raising its claws to counter.
Mira, shunt!
At the last second, Mira folded a tiny pocket of space. Leyla's real attack wasn't the leap; it was a mid-air twist propelled by Mira's spatial nudge, allowing her to slash low and sever the replica's leg at the knee. It fell with a wet shriek.
Ryn, frequency 7.3!
Ryn instantly switched her disruptor to a specific resonance. Her replica's systems, perfectly copying her old settings, weren't shielded against it. It staggered, its aim thrown off. Ryn put a plasma bolt through its head.
Echo faced his own copy, which was now alone. "You see?" Echo panted. "You can copy our skills. You can't copy our trust."
The replica snarled and lunged. Echo didn't parry. He dropped his guard entirely.
The replica's blade stabbed toward his heart.
And met Leyla's crossed claws, as she phased in to intercept.
In that moment of the replica's surprise, Mira collapsed space around its weapon arm, pinning it. Ryn fired a hacking dart into its neck.
Echo stepped forward, his own blade glowing with the combined energy of his bonds—silver, blue, and electric yellow. He drove it into the replica's chest, not where a heart would be, but into the central bio-processor core.
The replicant Echo exploded into a shower of inert gel.
Silence, save for their ragged breaths. The copies were defeated.
Admiral Nox began to applaud, a slow, chilling sound. "Marvelous. Truly. The synergistic variable exceeds projections. The bonding protocol is the key. It must be preserved during integration."
He rose from his dais, his shadow-cloak expanding to fill the back half of the sanctum. "The evaluation is over. You have passed. Now… the harvest begins."
Nightmare-Class power erupted from him. The very air screamed. Tendrils of pure void shot from his cloak, aimed not to kill, but to capture, to ensnare.
This was no longer a test.
This was the endgame.