Chapter 59: Man vs Mirror

Basil’s rocket blew up the fake goddess to kingdom come.

Her body exploded into shards of ice that rained on the ground like falling stars. Basil was almost thrown off his Harley Davidson by the blast, but managed to hang on to his vehicle.

Since Hypathia’s two other copies didn’t vanish, he could only assume that he had slain a clone. Were any of them even real? As one Artemis-Apollo raised her bow in Vasi’s direction and another copy targeted Rosemarine, Basil wondered if either of them was the original.

Vasi had managed to shoot down the last of the harpies with Shellgirl’s help. She saw Hypathia coming and managed to avoid an arrow of fire aiming for her face. The witch and the goddess danced in the skies above the Steamobile, with Shellgirl firing ice shards at the enemy. Her frosty projectiles shattered harmlessly on Hypathia’s marble skin without inflicting damage.

With Basil too far away to intervene, the second clone opened fire on Rosemarine’s back. An arrow of ice materialized in Hypathia’s bow of light and surged across the sky. For a brief instant, Basil thought Rosemarine would move fast enough to dodge it. The crescent moon mark on her neck dashed his hopes with a silver glow. The arrow’s trajectory bent like a missile guided by a homing beacon and nailed Rosemarine.

Her scream of pain echoed across the land. Basil’s stomach soured in dread as a layer of permafrost covered his darling tropidrake’s back. Rosemarine nearly stumbled onto the road, but managed to stand on her feet and keep running across the desolate national road.

Basil checked his friend’s status and his eyes widened in panic.

Rosemarine Eglantine de la Barthe: 1382/3200 HP. [Frostbite] ailment: Rosemarine will take weak [Frost] damage at regular intervals, and her Magic will be debuffed.

Between Rosemarine’s natural weakness to Frost and the Orion Belt Field effect, more than half of his adorable plant’s health points had been shaved away in a single blow! Another ice arrow would kill her.

“I’m coming, Rosemarine!” Basil shouted as he smashed the accelerator. “Monster Cure II!”

[Frostbite] ailment lifted.

Healing light coursed through Rosemarine’s body. Her leaf-scales shrugged off the ice covering her, yet Basil’s Perk could only heal a paltry hundred HP; far too little to make a difference should she be targeted again.

He cast Monster Cure II again and again as Hypathia materialized another arrow of ice. Vasi and Shellgirl were occupied by the other copy, and Bugsy and Plato had their paws and mandibles full trying to throw her cyclops minion off the Steamobile.

With no one to interrupt, the fake goddess raised her bow of light for a second attack. Rosemarine looked over her shoulder, burning light gathering in her petals. “Sunbeam!”

Rosemarine blasted Hypathia with a blazing ray of condensed sunlight. The air shimmered from the heat as it illuminated the starry sky. The light swallowed the fake goddess and continued its course into the distant clouds.

Basil had witnessed Rosemarine’s attack incinerate monsters to ashes and vaporize castle walls. Yet as he saw Hypathia’s shadow remain whole inside the light, he started to doubt it would slay her. The strength of the beam pushed the clone back a few meters, but when Rosemarine ran out of breath and the light was extinguished, the fake goddess emerged from her ordeal unharmed. Her arrow of ice had melted into nothingness, and she swiftly drew her bow to target Rosemarine anew.

Basil’s jaw clenched at the sight. “Elemental immunities?”

Basil had fought foes that could shrug off one element in the past—the waterboarding mermaid incident came to mind—but he had never faced someone outright invulnerable to multiple ones. Since Shellgirl’s ice projectiles failed to affect the other copy, Hypathia was immune to Fire, Light, and Frost.

This negatied a large part of Basil’s rune arsenal… but he could do more than attack with them.

“Magitek: Fire Rune.” Basil’s magic infused the Harley Davidson. The wheels caught fire and the metal parts of the vehicle heated up. The motorcycle turned black as coal as its engine roared and its exhaust ports breathed fire. His vehicle’s speed accelerated until he caught up to Rosemarine.

Having run out of rockets, Basil stored the launcher and switched it for his AK-47. It was difficult to aim with one hand and to direct the Harley with the other, but he managed to take a decisive shot. “Corrosive Rune!”

An acid-coated bullet hit Hypathia’s copy before she could finish off Rosemarine. Where other projectiles failed to harm her, Basil’s attack pierced through her chest and shattered the fake goddess into stardust.

Supereffective hit!

Only one clone remained.

“Target her weaknesses!” Basil shouted to his allies as he spammed Monster Cure II. Rosemarine activated her Sunbath Perk, her health bar slowly rising up. “Corrosion, Earth, and Darkness! They’re the elements that her Field weakens, so she must be vulnerable to them like Tamura was!”

“I can’t use any of them!” Shellgirl complained.

“But I can!” Vasi replied. Darkness gathered in her hand. “Shadowshot!”

A sphere of solid shadow surged from her fingers and hit the last copy of Hypathia in the shoulder. The fake goddess winced in pain from the blow, her marble skin turning black as coal where the projectile impacted her.

Most importantly, she didn’t vanish like the other copies.

“Is… is this pain?” Hypathia was so shocked at being wounded that she briefly interrupted her assault. She stared at her shoulder in horror. Instead of shedding blood, her marble skin bloated and mutated. The spot where Vasi’s spell had hit her started to resemble an eyeless face. “What have you… what have you done to me?”

Is that a tumor? Basil wondered before forcing himself to focus. Now was the best opportunity to strike. “That’s the real one! Dust her!”

Vasi pressed on with more shadow projectiles, but Basil’s words snapped Hypathia out of her trance. The false goddess gained more altitude and swiftly divided herself into four duplicates once more. “Light Mirror!”

Basil cursed this turn of events, but remained confident. If she had entered battle personally rather than staying safely at the rear, then her cloning ability had a distance limit. The original couldn’t wander too far from her clones.

“Go, Vasi!” Shellgirl cheered and buffed her best friend. “Motivate!”

“Hasten!” Vasi said. Time dilated around her until Basil struggled to keep track of her movements. His girlfriend’s flying broom moved as fast as a falcon on cocaine and her shadowshots surged across the skies like missiles. Artemis-Apollo’s clones spread out to avoid the bombardment, but none of their own projectiles could hit Vasi back.

Hasten wouldn’t last long, but it brought the team precious time.

“Shellgirl, I’m sending you weapons through the Guild Inventory!” Basil unstored a rifle from his inventory. “Magitek: Corrosive Rune.”

Basil’s refinement succeeded, empowering the rifle with acidic power. He stored it in the Guild Inventory, which allowed Shellgirl to materialize the weapon in her hands. Moving at the Steamobile’s top, she aimed at Hypathia’s duplicates and opened fire at them.

“Basil, I wouldn’t mind a little help here too!” Plato shouted as he stabbed the cyclops’ fingers with his rapier. Bugsy had coiled around the giant’s neck in a doomed attempt to snap it, but neither he nor Plato managed to get him off the Steamobile. The monster simply healed faster than Basil’s allies could harm him.

“Mistress!” the cyclops roared in spite of Bugsy’s best efforts to suffocate him. His hand grabbed an exhaust port and started ripping it out. Steam erupted out of the damaged vehicle’s pipes. “For you! All for you!”

“Hold on, guys!” Basil moved the Harley Davidson closer to the cyclops and summoned his halberd. “I’m coming!”

“I’m on it, Mister!” Rosemarine shouted. “Girls!”

Answering his call, the Fire Seeds inside the Steamobile leaped out of the windows to deal with the cyclops. The rampaging giant’s hands smashed the far weaker monsters wherever he struck, but Rosemarine’s remaining brood managed to cover his shoulders and head. Plato, seeing the danger, leaped back into the vehicle.

“For her Majesty!” the Fire Seeds shouted.

The plants exploded together in a cataclysmic detonation. Bugsy was spared thanks to his Fire immunity, but skin melted off the cyclops’ face. The disfigured giant lost his footing on the Steamobile and nearly fell off it. Only one hand desperately held on to the vehicle.

“Bugsy!” Basil shouted as he raised his halberd. “Get off him!”

“Yes, Boss!” Bugsy uncoiled from the cyclops and crawled back onto the Steamobile. Basil struck the cyclops’ arm the moment his friend was safe. His halberd cut through flesh and bones, severing the hand from the rest of the body.

“Mistress, I love—” The cyclops opened up his heart right as his fall ruptured his chest. The giant hit the ground at high speed, his rib cage cracking and organs spilling out of it; heart included. A few seconds later, the cyclops had become no more than a lump of flesh vanishing beyond the horizon.

Only Hypathia remained.

At this point, Vasi’s Hasten spell had run out. Only two of the copies remained, but to Basil’s horror, the shoulder wound that his girlfriend had inflicted on the original was closing on its own. The black, eyeless facial tumor on the fake goddess’ marble skin receded back into her body until she regained her unearthly beauty.

Artemis-Apollo is back at full health!

“She can clone herself and regenerate?” Basil choked in disbelief. “You cheater! You pay-to-win cheater!”

“She’s a bird, what else did you expect but foul play?” Plato asked before unleashing a Wind Slash at the two Hypathias. He managed to hit a copy that exploded into a shower of stardust, identifying the last one as the real one. “There she is!”

Basil swiftly switched his halberd for his corrosive AK-47 and opened fire. Shellgirl did the same with her own rifle and Vasi joined in the fun with a shadowshot. Hypathia managed to dodge the last projectile, but both bullets hit her in the chest. Acid spread on her womb and breasts like spilled oil on a water's surface. More blackened tumors erupted from her wounds.

Hypathia snarled in pain and put some space between herself and the Steamobile. She moved to its right and zigzagged in the skies to avoid the bullets.

She’s frailer than Tamura and doesn’t seem to have close-combat abilities, Basil guessed. She’s a pure long-range fighter. If we can stay close and damage her faster than her regeneration can keep up, she’ll eventually fold.

“Rosemarine, stay close to her!” Basil ordered as he chased after Hypathia. The fake goddess had already begun multiplying again. “Vasi, up for a tag team?”

“Of course, handsome.” His girlfriend moved her broom over him and cast Hasten on him. “I’m burning through my SP faster than my pastry stock, though, so I don’t think I can keep this up much longer. I’m still in the lead for the kill count competition though.”

“Yes you are,” Basil replied with a grin. “Scary feature, that tumor wound thing.”

“It's not me,” she replied with a frown. “Hasten.”

It wasn’t her fault?

[Hasten] status effect! Your speed will be doubled for two minutes!

Basil frowned as time dilated around him and his motorcycle. The world blurred and his vision turned into a tunnel of light. At the end of it was Hypathia, on whom he opened fire at hypersonic speed. With Vasi’s robes doubling her spells’ duration, Basil could enjoy the buff to its fullest.

Luck finally worked in his favor, for he managed to hit the real one in the right leg with his first bullet. The doubles didn’t vanish when the original took damage, though the same wounds appeared on all of them to avoid helping identify the original. This time, the damage took on an even more horrifying shape: that of a golden tumor with two blank, milky eyes staring back at Basil.

“Well, that’s creepy,” Basil mumbled to himself. He was already scared of cancer after watching René die from it, but seeing a tumor with eyes disturbed him to his core. Even Hypathia tried to cover the wounds with her wings, as if to suppress the memory of it. “Something’s wrong with you, rich girl.”

“Shut up,” the four Hypathias hissed back, their wings glowing like the sun. “Revealing Light!”

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A burning, blinding flash of light erupted from the four Hypathias. Basil had to cover his hand to avoid going blind, and Vasi’s newest shadowshot was blown away by the enemy’s radiance.

[Blind] ailment Resisted! Plato, Bugsy, Shellgirl and Vasilisa have gone [Blind]!

Artemis-Apollo has analyzed your System information.

“Vasi? Vasi are you alright?” Basil lowered his hand just in time to see the four Hypathias grinning at him. All of them raised their bows at his face, right as Rosemarine’s moon-shaped mark disappeared and suddenly reappeared on her Tamer’s hand.

Artemis-Apollo’s [Huntress’ Moon] marked you as the hunt’s target! Your chances of avoiding attacks have been halved for one hour, and your odds of suffering from a critical hit have been doubled!

Four arrows of ice flew straight at Basil.

Still hastened by Vasi’s spell, he switched his AK-47 for his halberd in the blink of an eye. Knowing the projectiles would bend to follow him, he didn’t bother dodging. Instead, he swung his blazing weapon and shattered any arrow threatening him.

Basil’s eyes turned to Vasi, whose broom flew around without direction. Thankfully, Hypathia ignored Basil’s girlfriend to chase after him. She had mistaken him for the party’s weak link.

“You’re a Tamer, aren’t you?” Hypathia’s copies all spoke at one. They floated in a square formation right above his head. “The System says all your friends will perish with you.”

“So will yours.” Basil snorted. If anything, he was happy Hypathia would focus on him rather than his vulnerable girlfriend. “Bring it, Marie-Antoinette.”

Hypathia switched tactics from ice arrows to fire ones. Since he couldn’t easily deflect those with his halberd, Basil trusted in his motorcycle and smashed the accelerator. The projectiles chased after him like missiles homing on his crescent moon mark. Basil’s Hasten-empowered vehicle allowed him to outpace a few until they dissipated, but one exploded close to his back. The blast almost threw him off his vehicle.

“This is nothing personal, young man,” Hypathia said with a tone that implied otherwise. “I can’t let someone capable of killing us free and loose in the world. We’ll have enough trouble when the real threats await around the dimensional corner.”

“Maybe you should have thought of it before destroying the world,” Basil replied, seething from the sensation of flames burning on his shoulders. “Were you tired of taking Instagram photos with Bill Gates and pandas?”

“Did you know there was enough food around to end world hunger?” Hypathia asked with a patronizing tone as she and her clones prepared another volley. “Yet nearly one billion people, a seventh of mankind, were dying from famine around the globe. And don’t get me started on world poverty, war, and global warming. The world was already crumbling because of greedy, selfish little men.”

“Wait, you think that you have the moral high ground?” Basil choked at her hypocrisy. “You destroyed the world and use brainwashed slaves!”

“They should be happy to die in the service of a great cause.”

Basil glanced over his shoulder at his allies on the Steamobile. Rosemarine was closing the gap between her and Hypathia, but Plato covered his eyes with his paws and Bugsy helped a blinded Shellgirl aim with her rifle. The centimagma didn’t seem troubled by his own lack of sight, probably thanks to Tremorsense, but his fire breath wouldn’t affect the enemy. Vasi ran circles in the sky, struggling to stay on her broomstick

Hypathia paid them no mind. Considering most of them neutralized and believing victory to be within her grasp, she focused entirely on Basil. She showed as much battlefield awareness as Tamura before her.

It was a fatal mistake.

“Monster Cure II.” Basil’s magic spread to his allies, curing their blindness as Jesus did with the old man of Bethsaida.

You healed Vasilisa, Plato, Bugsy, and Shellgirl from the [Blind] ailments!

Like Walter said. Basil looked over his shoulder and witnessed Vasi taking position above Hypathia. Rosemarine arrived from the left, with the Steamobile’s crew ready to open fire. Specialization pays off in the end.

“This destruction is only the first step of purification,” Hypathia ranted as she and her clones opened fire again. “We’re going to recreate the world, Bohen, a better world. A pure blue planet free of suffering.”

“Your walk betrays your talk,” Basil said as he switched weapons for his AK-47. He suddenly veered his Harley Davidson to the side and lowered his head at the last moment, the fiery arrows narrowly missing. “And you’re no goddess of mine.”

Basil pressed his weapon’s trigger right as his allies attacked from all sides. Vasi fired an orb of darkness from above. Plato used a Wind Slash from the left side by side with Shellgirl, who opened fire with her rifle. As for Bugsy, he ripped a metal plate from the Steamobile and threw it at Hypathia with all his might.

Basil’s bullet destroyed a clone, as did Vasi’s shadowshot. Plato and Shellgirl hit the same target, which dissipated into the ether. But Bugsy… Bugsy’s improvised projectile bounced off the original’s head with such strength as to make her waver.

“I got her!” Bugsy rejoiced. “I got her!”

Exploiting what little time he had left under the Hasten spell, Basil followed up his ally’s success with a rain of bullets. Two of his projectiles missed, but the third hit Hypathia in the head.

“Uh… argh… I can’t… I can’t take this anymore!” Hypathia snarled in pain as her wound grew into a blackened, mouthed tumor. “Teleport!”

She courageously advanced in the opposite direction as the Bohens. Like sharks smelling blood in the water, the party immediately chased after her. All the while they kept up the pressure with projectiles. Each blow caused a new tumor to appear, whether golden or black.

“Teleport!” Hypathia shouted, her anger turning into panic. She attempted to create duplicates again, but the group shot them down as soon as they appeared. “Ashok, let me teleport back! Ashok! Ashok, you trai–AH!”

Hypathia shouted as her body suddenly split in half.

Basil watched in amazement at this odd turn of events. The fake goddess crash-landed on the grass, her back rupturing in two as the tumors infesting her body joined together in a circle. One half of the mutated flesh took on a golden color and the other a shade of black.

“Maxwell, what… what’s happening?” Hypathia crawled on the ground, her bow of light dissipating into nothingness. “What’s happening… to me? I feel… I feel…”

“What’s wrong with her?!” Bugsy asked as Rosemarine stopped the Steamobile at a respectable distance. Basil slowed down as his Hasten buff dissipated, but remained wary. “Her body…”

“She’s sick.” Plato shuddered in disgust. “Beyond sick.”

“My beauty… you said you would make men worship me, Maxwell… Maxwell!” Hypathia held her head with both her hands and screamed. “Aaagh!”

Her harrowing, haunting screech made Basil wince. To his horror, faces appeared on both halves of her splintered back: a masculine visage on the golden one, and a feminine on the black one. It seemed as if demons possessing Hypathia struggled to escape her body.

“The gods inside her are rebelling,” Vasi guessed as she lowered her broom’s altitude. “She doesn’t have the strength to keep them suppressed anymore.”

Tamura only had Dionysus to contend with, but from her name she got greedy and asked for two deities, Basil thought grimly. She was never worthy of this power

This ordeal couldn’t have happened to a nicer gal, but Hypathia’s misery brought him no pleasure. Basil would rather put her down like the animal she was.

“This is the end,” Basil said as he climbed down from his motorcycle and raised his AK-47 at the false goddess’ head. “Bugsy, Plato, let’s finish her off.”

“Wait…” Hypathia hissed as the Bohens surrounded her. She raised her hand at Basil, her eyes pleading for mercy. “I can… save me…”

“You want healing?” Basil asked, sensing an opportunity. He put the tip of his barrel against the false goddess’ temple. “Then start talking. What’s in the UNESCO HQ?”

“Ben…” Hypathia whispered as the tumors grew larger. “He’s overseeing the Naraka subsystem… still trying to get her back…”

Vasi frowned in confusion. “Naraka? Her?”

“If I die… my soul…” Hypathia’s eyes twisted into terrible fear as her body ripped further. “I don’t want to go to that place…”

Basil winced. His worst suspicions started to sound plausible. “What does the soul have to do with this?”

“Your memories… your knowledge… the weight of your emotions, of your thoughts and beliefs… they form what you call the soul.” Hypathia vomited thick black blood. Shellgirl covered her mouth at the sight of her agony. “They are like batteries accumulating power… and release the charge upon death.”

Basil’s blood froze in his veins. “Where does the charge go afterward?”

“When we kill… the accumulated spiritual power of the victim’s soul… is released… the Trimurti System harvests it before it disperses… and transfers that excess energy to the winner…”

“Experience Points.” Vasi chewed her lips. She had put two and two together too. “This is where experience points come from.”

Basil’s grip on his AK-47 tightened. He had suspected as much, but now a worrying possibility formed in his mind. He had always wondered how the System managed to violate conservation of energy, but if souls indeed had power…

“Where do souls go afterward?” Basil pressed this selfish, irredeemable vermin. She knew. She knew from the first day and signed on it! “Where do they go?”

“Please…” Hypathia pleaded. “I can’t…”

“Where do they go?!” Basil snarled in anger. “Where do souls go–”

Hypathia perished before he could finish.

Torn from within by the godlike powers she should never have been allowed to wield, her body snapped in half like a twig. A flash of light erupted from her remains. Basil and his team took a step back as the fake goddess crumbled into stardust. The starry sky above started to dissipate, the Field effect collapsing without anyone to fuel it. Basil’s crescent mark vanished into nothingness.

Of Hypathia, only two ethereal spheres remained. No larger than a fist, one was the color of the moonlight and the other as golden as the sun.

Congratulations! Your party earned 220,000 EXP points (36666 for you). You’ve earned two levels (total 35).

You have earned an [Essence of Artemis] and an [Essence of Apollo].

Basil looked at the spheres in silence, before turning to his allies. Most of them were either confused by their foe’s confessions, or in Vasi’s case, greatly disturbed by its implications.

Only Rosemarine remained cheerful in victory. She looked up at the clearing sky. The setting sun had reappeared alongside the distant moon. She glanced at the two celestial bodies, then at the spheres, and then back at the sky. Rosemarine held her breath as she returned her focus on today’s prize. She had connected the dots.

“Can I eat the baby sun and moon, Mister?” she asked innocently.

“No, sweetie,” Basil replied with a sigh. “No.”

Rosemarine lowered her head and whined in disappointment.

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