Chapter 156: Chapter 155: Undone

Amongst the chaos that currently filled the now destroyed slave gladiator arena stood the Man In The Pinstripe Suit, combating a legion of Shadow Madeleines and non-Madeleines, as per instruction. From above, watching from just out of the Madeleines' range, was the anomalous shadow clone, Cookie, waiting for her next opportunity to strike.

"Tiny little pieces of a bigger whole… if I take a bite out of them all, will she collapse instantly, or will her life shatter slowly, painfully, absolutely?" She looks down, noticing the countless shadow clones more akin to drones on autopilot being knocked out of the way, not worth the time consuming. 

"I already know the answer to that. If I didn't, I wouldn't be consuming my sisters." She eventually catches sight of a peculiar shadow clone whose hair is white, unlike the typical black of the other shadow clones, who had been thrown far into the air by Eldra. 

"Hmm… to snuff out the light. What a delightful meal." Cookie flew towards the rising shadow clone, grabbing her by the ankle and then throwing her away from the others, right into the shadows made by the clouds. She quickly followed, entering her own abyss created for her 'personal' meetings with her sisters.

"Cookie… you!" Light shot out of the palms of the angered shadow clone, completely engulfing her kidnapper's dark pocket dimension. She kept up the light show, only to see the light was slowly getting dimmer, no matter how much power she was putting into it. "W-What?!"

The dimming source revealed itself to be Cookie, whose jaw had opened to reveal sharp teeth and a small orb of light inside, the last piece of energy of the light attack. Cookie snapped her jaw shut, letting out an evil grin. "Absolutely exquisite. Light tainted by fear… I'll remember you for your taste till the end of times, sister." Before Light could even react, the malicious shadow clone had pounced on her, taking a bite out of her neck, then her head, and soon, her entire being was devoured. "Back, and back, and back we go. A terrible fate I bring."

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"Madeleine, are you okay?" Mel asked with the tenderest of care in her eyes… a look and feel that felt… foreign to me. How odd… it should be a sight I'm used to, yet… "Madeleine! What's wrong?! Myka, do you have any idea?!"

"Geez, calm down, woman." Myka waved her hands around, creating magic circles around me. Hmm… analysis magic, I could easily break it… I probably shouldn't. The magic circles whirled around me, then dissolved, and finished analysing me, which led to Myka letting out a frenzied laugh.

"Why are you laughing?!" Yelled Mel in a panicked voice. Most likely from both Myka's insanity and my… despondency. Yes, despondency… that's what I feel… but why? 

"Ahahaha… that's just gold, priceless even."

"What is?!"

"Let me explain something about Shadow Cloning real quick." Myka snaps her fingers, turning our surrounding environment into darkness, similar to the Shadowrealm.

"Shadow Cloning, when it copies an inanimate object, simply recreates the object with darkness. Usually, it does this by covering said object with shadows, analysing it, then recreating it." Myka snaps her fingers, creating an apple and throwing it at me. I caught it, understood what she wanted me to do, and made a copy with Shadow Cloning, creating a dark apple in my other hand. "Fun fact: There was a singular day where the entirety of Mendass was covered in darkness. It should be obvious what came from that."

"There is an exception to that rule, and that's people. When Shadow Cloning is used on a sentient being, it copies their soul. Now, this usually isn't a problem, except for one little teensy problem: When a Shadow Clone gains sentience, their soul copied is imbued with a tiny bit of the original's soul, just to add in that little proper life spice." 

"I see… you're saying one of Madeleine's sentient Shadow Clones was killed," Mel said, her hand on her chin. "Was it the Man In The Pinstripe Suit?"

"Nah, no way it was her." Myka put her hand into her chest and pulled out a dark orb with a black fog. "This is what a soul affected by that Eldritch ripoff looks like. Now, let me show Madeleine's." Myka grabbed into my chest, grabbing out a blue orb that had a tiny chunk of it missing, looking like someone took a bite of it as if it was an apple.

"A bitemark? Someone is eating her soul?"

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"Little by little."

"But how does that explain why she seems so… unenergetic?"

"Different beings react differently to their soul getting broken apart bit by bit. Some shake and cry, others break down in despair, and her," She pointed at me. "She seems to become undone. Tell me, Madeleine, where were you exactly one year ago?"

"The…" Ah, I see now. That explains why I'm like this. "The slave markets. A terrible to have been alive."

Mel's eyes went wide, and she grabbed my hand, attempting to comfort me. "How do we fix this?!"

"Well, lucky you. Since becoming undone is a symptom exclusive to artificial beings, we can easily fix this if we return her to the source."

"So we have to go to the Maid School… wait, what did you say about artificial beings?"

"I'd like to hear about that too. Artificial being?"

"Eh, don't feel like explaining. I think we should get going to the Maid School, repair Madeleine, then kick the ass of the asshole doing this shit."

"Wait, you can't just nonchalantly drop a plot twist that big on us, then move on!"

"Uh… yes, I can, especially with how Madeleine is." 

Huh… me? Oh, I just realised I'm on my knees again… although, this time, I feel slightly better, like I'm inside a slightly bigger cage with slightly fewer mean gazes constantly on me…

"Fuck. Myka, take us there."

"Aye aye, captain." Myka snapped her fingers, taking us to a familiar place.

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Chapter namesake: Undone by Kevin Sherwood for Call of Duty: Black Ops 1

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