Lexie scorched the first battalion of Lexies that came at her.

She let her VOID FLAME do its thing, wiping out at least ten of the front line, including a creature with multiple hands.

But then one of them threw up a shield made of void, and void cancelled out Lexie's voids.

Damn it.

She had <Can't Touch This> sweeping her away from the coming army, but then they fanned out, surrounding her, leaving her nowhere to go.

<Lightfoot> flung her up.

Faster than Lexie could move, one of them split into two and appeared behind her. They drove their foot into her back, and when she turned to target them with VOID, they moved again, once more flashing behind her at the speed of light.

The kick wasn't that strong. But it did distract her from the second attack that came from beside her.

As Lexie spun around to deal with the speedy clones, another big, muscly clone leaped into the air and grabbed at her.

She tried to escape, but it felt like a magnet held her in place.

The blow to her face shattered her teeth, sending her crashing to the ground. She spat out blood on her tongue, leaping to her feet, burning everything around her.

She successfully avoided the next hit to her side and the next, but then Lexie spun around and came face to face with the beautiful Lexie. It smiled and snagged her attention, mesmerizing her like a siren.

"I'm prettier than you," it whispered, and the muscly thing grabbed her again, swinging her around and smashing her into the ground.

"I'm stronger than you," it growled.

"Faster." Speedy Lexie chased after her again, the second she got to her feet, and it caught up to her.

That was when it occurred to Lexie.

The things she was facing were the physical embodiment of her and her abilities. Particularly, the abilities enclosed in her cards. Each clone represented a different card–or a combination of cards–but its abilities were dialed up to the level.

But so far, each clone had only had one ability. Lexie could beat them with her versatility. She could do everything they could do, although maybe not as well.

Of course, the realization did not stop her from getting her ass kicked for the next however much time passed.

They were on her like flies surrounding her, bouncing off her shields and taking every opening they found.

Lexie couldn't catch a break and could barely catch a breath. It seemed like everywhere she turned, there was a fist in her face or flame thrown at her, or a void targeted to remove a body part.

She was fighting back with the same moves they were, but they were not as good, and she was on the losing end.

Yet she still stood. Her entire body screamed at her to stay down, but she fought back.

Preservation told her to get to her knees and beg for mercy, but that wasn't in her nature.

Through the battle, Lexie thought she saw something strange. One of the Lexies wasn't fighting.

It was standing behind the skirmish, alone. Observing. Writing in the air. Writing what?

Lexie's eye popped out at the next punch. She lost her ear to a VOID SHOT, and the fire blinded her.

She screamed her rage, her pain, and kept going. She would scorch down this entire place before she died.

The Old One laughed.

Lexie hated this. She was strong. She was better than they. One by one, she had a counter for each of the creatures that were coming at her, but together they were an unstoppable storm. And the Old One just kept making more of them? Better ones, which meant that even as she was evolving to be better, so were they.

It was an unwinnable battle. Yet Lexie continued to resist.

She pushed herself to be faster, stronger. She forced her screaming lungs to breathe fire and caused her VOID to expand over everything.

She lost herself to the motion, her mind and hands moving before she could formulate a full thought. She became purely a creature of action, her body fighting based on instinct.

Drive.

Desire.

Another blow in the gut, and blood poured out of her mouth. She couldn't tell where the attacks were coming from now. She'd lost her sense of sight, hearing, and taste, but she kept fighting.

And something inside her was awakening. Heating up.

It shifted in her chest as the fog of war stained her mind.

Her light was shining, yet there was an inner scream that was getting louder and louder until Lexie couldn't ignore it anymore. The pain was there, the misery of her body and soul. The humiliation of knowing you were in a losing battle.

Knowing that you were failing your purpose.

That you were not good enough, and you were not what you thought. You would now become one of the weak to be extinguished, and something better would take your place.

Losing light.

That pain was unbearable, so Lexie turned her mind inwards as her body acted on autopilot. She tried to escape herself, escape her body, but the creature wasn't letting her. She wasn't letting herself.

The scream got louder the closer she got to her ultimate demise. She didn't know when that would be, but it felt soon.

He could not kill her, probably. But Lexie would likely have her first experience of being denatured today.

No! Denaturing meant that she could be turned into a dungeon, trapped and controlled. She refused to be subjugated in such a way. No one would take her again.

She reached out psychically to the Old One, trying to grab its mind, raging at its savage enjoyment in the face of her failure.

You attempt to soul-touch? It cackled wildly. You think you can do so and not self-destruct. So be it. You thought you could defy me, but I will teach you what I am. You will grovel before me, while I destroy you.

Never. Lexie would never grovel because it wasn't in her nature to bend. She could only break.

Yet something inside her also resisted breaking.

It continued through as Lexie was swarmed with the chaos of the creature's soul.

That connection with the vast expanse of the soul battered her with knowledge she couldn't understand, and had her drowning. The dark, inky chaos writhed and invaded her throat, blinding her eyes, piercing through her ears.

The Old One laughed, sending forth more of his soul to overwhelm her. But Lexie tried to hold on to something she could understand, anchor herself with something she could connect to.

It wasn't easy. With creatures in her soul line, the connection had been instantaneous, but this time she had to force it. It felt like walking up a mountain against a tornado, searching for the peak to plant her flag.

She struggled, fell, and crawled. She held on, and even when she did plant a flag, it kept slipping out, until she thrust it with all her strength, gripping it, biting her lips to keep from screaming.

Still, she screamed.

It was just too much, suffering packed on top of suffering. But Lexie bore it anyway. She had no idea what was happening to her body, but she got the sense of her limbs being ripped apart, attacked by the creatures, tortured slowly till she died.

But her mind was fighting a different battle, trying to dominate the indomitable.

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A flash of light numbed her, pierced through the darkness.

Finally, there was stillness.

Lexie no longer heard the cackling or the mocking voice, nor did she feel the creatures attacking her.

Everything was gone. The wind stopped.

She didn't know how she did it. A heat from her chest, a piercing light sort of drove everything back, until something emerged from the darkness again.

It was…her.

Lexie had a moment of alertness. She was concerned that the clones had invaded even this space and would denature her here.

But this one wasn't attacking.

It simply stood there.

There was a halo around its form, a glow emanating from without and within. She stood regally, the air around her shimmering with authority, darkness wrapped and woven around her body like silks draped from the shoulders down to a long train. A haughty expression filled her face as she raised an eyebrow at Lexie.

Lexie felt genuinely like bowing before her.

She might as well. She was already on her knees. Holding on for dear life. The creature was standing, and perhaps if she begged, it would help her.

But Lexie couldn't. It was not in her nature.

The creature before her bent down till they were eye level, and it said, "Wow. You've gotten hideous. And dumber."

"Who are you?"

"Who do you think I am?"

"You are me." Lexie guessed. "But better." This must be the embodiment of the creature's soul, reflecting everything about her but a better version.

"I am better," it admitted. "You must get better, too. You must defeat the Old One to leave this space. And you must defeat the Master of Doors to leave this plane. You must do it quickly...the longer you spend here, the more you become incorporated into the dungeon's world."

That confused Lexie. If this creature was the embodiment of the Old One's soul, then why was it trying to help her defeat it? Was this a trick? Or was something else afoot?

"I don't understand how to defeat him."

Other Lexie gave her a disappointed look. "The Eldritch are powerful, but they are pure chaos. They are also creatures of simple desires. That is their weakness. Use it."

"I don't know what that means."

Other Lexie rolled her eyes and made a sound of exasperation.

"You are not stupid. Figure it out. If you do not defeat him, you will not survive long enough to do what you need to do."

"Killing Lord Naem."

"Is that all you think about? Is your mind so small? Even after everything?"

"Killing Naem will bring me light."

"You are your own light, Lexie Sparrowfoot," Other Lexie said, and she reached out and touched her chest. Lexie saw images flashing through her mind, of creatures large and small, grotesque and divine. She saw them all standing before her, armies of them, spread far and wide. Human, Fae, Goblin, species she'd never seen, but in front of all of them on a raised stage were the Eldritch.

And they were all staring at Lexie.

One by one, they bowed.

Lexie gaped. It was such an odd and disconcerting image that it stole her breath, as the spread of bodies began to prostrate themselves before her.

Lexie began laughing, and she heard angry voices in her head, but she ignored them. She stared at the image, and a hunger grew inside her, a hunger that was not wrath or a thirst for knowledge.

It was a hunger for power, a greed that she'd never known before.

"There it is. Now you understand," the Other Lexie said. "You can create your light, Lexie Sparrowfoot." She stood. "Deep down, you know what you want to be. You know what you deserve to be. But you cannot be that if you keep acting like a child and if you keep holding onto the past and refusing to evolve."

"So what do I do?"

"Fight. Learn. Win."

With that last exchange, the creature disappeared, and Lexie was pushed off the mountain, falling through the nothingness once more.

Before she crashed back into her body, she was snatched again, landing in another scene that she almost didn't recognize.

There was a forest and greenery. A familiar cottage in the distance. A nutmeg scent in the air that awakened something inside her and made her want to cry.

Sadness was not an emotion she thought she had anymore. It had been wiped out of her, in her reset. But the scene had a bone-deep agonizing heartsickness drilling through her soul, worse than the itch that tried to burst out of her skin.

Home, Lexie realized. This was her home.

Here she'd been human. She had a father and a family and other humans whom she cared about.

She'd lost them all in that dungeon. She'd lost herself.

"Do you think so?"

Lexie turned around, and there was another creature behind her. Another Lexie, but different. This one did not have the cold perfection of the previous Lexie. She did not have her straight confidence, her charm, her poise.

Self-doubt reflected in her eyes. Fear. Hope. Loss.

A sense of never belonging.

All the emotions Lexie hated.

It looked so disgustingly familiar that Lexie wanted to kill it.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"Who do you think I am?" It repeated the words of the first Lexie.

"You are me. But worse."

Instead of being offended, Second Lexie chuckled. "Wow. You are awful. I really crawled up my own ass, didn't I? Xena would hate me."

Xena. The name sounded familiar to Lexie, but it brought too many conflicting emotions that Lexie didn't want to sort through.

So she discarded them.

"And, you're hideous." Second Lexie circled her. "I don't know how I'll deal with this. I am who you were. Whether that is worse or better will have to do with you. And eventually you will choose."

"Choose what?"

"Many choices are going to be placed before you. There are multiple paths you can take. I saw from the Old One's soul that Naem and Neqal have placed bets on you, on whether you will be as great as you can be, or you will cling to your humanity. "

Lexie didn't know what that referred to. Why would they bet on her? For simple amusement?

Why had Naem betrayed her?

"You are not a pawn in their game, Lexie," she said. "You are not Eldritch."

"Yes, I am."

"You do not have to be."

That wasn't true. Memories dropped in her mind like grains of sand, and she remembered being human and fighting not to become an Eldritch. She'd fought so hard not to be like them.

Yet here she was.

"You are not like them, Lexie." Second Lexie's tone was calming rather than invigorating like First Lexie. "Deep down, you know that. You have a choice: to move forward or move back. But you must make that choice if you ever want to leave this place. And that will be your choice forever."

Lexie stared at the cottage, breathed in the cinnamon. Someone was baking.

Emotion ached in her chest, one she didn't think she had anymore.

Longing.

She wanted to go home.

She wanted to go home.

She wanted to go home

But she wanted the power too.

"I'm still there even when you cannot see me. I still fight even when you cannot hear me," Second Lexie said. "But I will not be there forever. And now I must go. We will meet again eventually. Goodbye, Lexie."

The scene vanished, and Lexie finally crashed back into her tattered body.

Her legs and arms had indeed been ripped off her. She was burned, too.

But she was Eldritch, Naem's spawn. She was strong. She hadn't been denatured yet.

"You dare try to use my mind?" The Old One screamed in her mind, and his anger made Lexie smile. She was glad she'd at least gotten to wipe away some of his smugness.

As he ranted, Lexie lay there, trying to figure out how to defeat him. He was powerful more so than her. But he was also simple.

Lexie's smile grew as she worked out a plan.

***

Aiden arranged the tools in his inventory and went over notes again. He double and triple-checked.

There was no room for error.

Typically, golems required multiple rounds of testing before they got it right, but Aiden couldn't afford that.

He only had so much material, and he didn't know where to get more. At least not with Vacek on his tail.

He'd been avoiding the other man, with the excuse that he was grieving his daughter. But Vacek was smart, though he was supremely busy. He would catch up eventually.

Aiden needed to at least be done with this part of his plan before he did.

Vacek probably already knew that Aiden could use alchemy. But Aiden was still helping him track the Alchemist, so he was staying off his case for now.

He cradled the Chaos orb in his hand. It siphoned chaos from an unknown source, and he would need to weave the chaos through Tate's body without hurting the boy. Then he would form a copy of Tate, adjusting the parts he needed to give him a power boost.

The last part was the transfer of consciousness, which made it even more complicated.

The seller told Aiden that the chaos may not be enough for a magic source. It would have to be for now. Later, Aiden would link Tate to himself and use his magic as an amplifier for Tate.

"So, is this all we need?" Tate asked.

"Should be," Aiden answered. Tate was sitting opposite him, and the boy looked pale. He'd looked like that all day, but he'd already maxed out on the amount of pain potion he could take today.

Aiden had made him even more refined potions that he could use more often, but even those were not enough to keep the pain at bay permanently.

Aiden felt sympathy prick his chest.

Though the boy was clearly in pain, he did a good job of hiding it, and he absolutely never mentioned it. The entire week, he'd helped Aiden with his plans without uttering a single word of complaint.

Part of it was his hunger for a newer, more powerful body.

But the other part of it was to save Lexie.

Tate said he thought Lexie might still be alive. After her death, her fate points would have been distributed back to the system, and Tate didn't think it had been.

Aiden thought Lexie was alive too; otherwise, his oath bond with Naem would have broken already, yet it was still there.

Speaking of Naem, where on earth was he? Was he busy with the ambassador or one of the others that he shared a soul bond with? How could he disappear during such a crucial time? Was his disappearance a coincidence? He should have saved Lexie from that dungeon. Why didn't he?

Tate got up and rubbed his temple.

"I think I might go and lie down a little bit if you don't need me," he said.

"Of course," Aiden said. "I'll make you some tea."

Tate nodded and walked gingerly out of the room.

No sooner than he left, Aiden went back to his calculations, but then he stiffened.

He sensed a presence approaching, about a mile away. His magic now constantly surveyed the perimeter of his home, but it retreated as the individual approached.

He knew what that meant.

Vacek was coming.

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