"So is this like… how you always wanted to dress?"

The Figment of his Imagination didn't respond. It stood there in silence, leaning quietly against the colossal crimson tree.

"I'm not complaining, you know. You—I look very classy."

Figment pressed the glasses back into place with a slight smile. "[Fictionalization] is limited to only your experiences. I thought you would remember these clothes."

Soren paused for a second to think then realized something, "Ah…

"Isn't that what I wore for my last chess tournament? It was to mock my opponent…"

"Correct," He answered punctually. "Your opponent at the time loved to wear clothing in this style, so you decided it would be funny to do the same thing while playing against him. You even mimicked his glasses."

Soren couldn't help but feel slightly embarrassed. "I still won the tournament though, so it worked out in the end…"

"Indeed," Figment nodded sarcastically. By now, it became obvious to Soren that The Records was intending to mock him. It wearing these clothes now were meant to symbolize his inevitable defeat.

In the end, Soren couldn't help but chuckle. "How very Soren of me." His eyes then naturally trailed to the Blue SIlver Grass waving silently under the forest's breeze. There was something strange about this open meadow.

And that was when he noticed it.

Scattered around in a circle were stone-like mushrooms that reflected the cold skylight of the Faerie Court. Atop their glassy caps were another kind of mushroom cap that resembled embers. They glowed faintly, pulsing like miniature hearts that trapped the luminescence of nearby fireflies.

"The Dragonstone Mushrooms and the Emberbloom Shroom Caps…

"I see… So this is where we'll be conducting the ritual."

Soren continued observing the formation and noticed a reflective tuning fork planted at the center of the mushroom circle. This too was a part of the Mushroom Dance ritual.

"A fitting location, is it not?" Figment said with a smile. "The Feylith Forest represents many things, but perhaps nothing is more obvious than its direct ties to that world's symbolism."

"Fantasia," Soren added. "The forest's tunes, as they say in many places. It's nothing more than a reference to the influence spirits hold over that world. Indeed, there is no better place to fit such a description than the Feylith Forest…"

The apparition of himself that Figment was puppeteering walked towards the mysterious ritual circle.

"One might even say your arrival in that world was highly symbolic. As if fate or whatever force led you to Yarian hoped for you to see what this world's nature truly represents. The Feylith Forest was a perfect starting point.

"And now, here you are, enacting a ritual in the same place… A ritual whose very governing principles involve listening to the Fantasia of that world. How ironic indeed."

As he said this, the wind swept greatly through the forest, bending the flora to its will. Soren intrinsically held tightly to his cone hat, afraid that it may fly away.

As he was doing this, he witnessed Figment reach out his arm into the air, as if to anticipate something. Before he could question the clone, a single feather-shaped crimson leaf blew past towards the raised hand, allowing him to catch it.

"Wind Whistling Leaves…" Soren mumbled in surprise. Moments later, he noticed more and more of them being rapidly blown by the invisible wind, allowing him to catch one as well.

As Soren analyzed the feather in his hand, he heard Figment speak once again:

"During these past few days, I've been able to glean lots of new information regarding Cantor's Crown—Most likely due to the growing corruption within our Runic Existence.

"From it, I was able to understand its perspective. You see, this rune only desires to solve its problems through the assistance of [The Faerie Court]. A desire such as this was powerful enough for it to even consider submitting to us.

"Of course, since the matter rests upon our Forgotten Rune fragment, it matters not to Cantor's Crown whether it is I or you who controls it. All it cares for is the results."

Soren crossed his arms. His expression slowly drifted into a deep frown.

"So what do you suggest?"

The cloned apparition pushed up its glasses. "My freedom will only come after the ritual proceeds accordingly. That is when your Soul Chain will regain its movement, allowing for all the accumulated corruption to empower my existence.

"Of course, since the both of us desire control over this space, creating a conflict during the ritual could cause unnecessary chaos. You might even consider obstructing the ritual entirely in an attempt to doom us both."

Soren couldn't help but chuckle. "You read me well."

"That is why I've come up with a different suggestion. Instead of simply fighting over this subspace's control while also attempting the Soul Alchemy ritual, I've decided to merge the two conflicts into one. We will compete over who manages to create the Pseudo Concept first.

"Of course, since two Pseudo Concepts will naturally be formed—both competing for the same node on the Soul Chain—the result of the competition will have to end abruptly after a winner is decided."

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Soren rubbed his chin. "So you're suggesting that the one who falls behind immediately forfeits their attempt at creating the Pseudo Concept, allowing the other party to commence the Abstract Rune merger?"

"No," Figment corrected. "I am suggesting for the person who fails to die."

"...."

Figment's smile widened drastically. "Pseudo Concepts are hard to remove once they are born, since the residual anima that gave rise to their creation will still exist. Usually, after the merger with the Abstract Rune is complete, the Pseudo Concept that was meant to represent that rune will merge with it, effectively removing its 'imprint' on the Beyond. But with two Pseudo Concepts existing simultaneously, guiding the rune into its designated node becomes increasingly difficult, leading to the ritual likely ending in failure.

"Of course, I can still activate [Fictionalization] to try and erase the Pseudo Concept using our existing knowledge of the Nameless Mist, but since your anima will still persist afterwards, the Pseudo Concept will likely return after the erasure. The only way to cull this is through the death of me or you—depending on who loses the game."

Soren remained silent for a while, trying to contemplate what the flame was plotting.

Eventually, he sighed while rubbing his temples. "How clever. I can't fully object to this plan since without it, the outcome would be far more chaotic."

Soren's lips then curled up slightly. "However, what if I desire that chaos anyway?"

"Then we would resort to a battle of willpower over who can dominate the other within this enigmatic space," Figment answered with a sigh, as if expecting such a question. "I don't believe I will lose in such a situation."

"Exactly," Soren's smile widened. "Between the two of us, you are likely to hold an advantage when it comes to controlling this subspace. So then, why would you suggest another plan of action that limits your capabilities?"

The Figment of his Imagination remained silent.

Soren's lips continued to curl, "Perhaps it's because you don't fully believe that anymore?"

After many days and nights spent utilizing [The Faerie Court]'s abilities, Soren had garnered more than enough practice to command the subspace. In many ways, the gap between him and Figment had shrunk significantly.

The flame was likely aware of this fact. If both of them held a similar level of control, the result might end in mutual destruction.

However, that would still not fully explain its reasoning. While a chaotic battle of subspace control would be catastrophic, Soren still saw it as the safer option for The Records whose entire existence was spent in this reality. Even if Soren planned to sabotage the ritual in the end, the ramifications would simply entail the failure of the ritual itself, or perhaps another form of corruption. With enough time, [Fictionalization] would eventually repair the damage. As for the risk of irreparability, Soren estimated it to be less than ten percent. Practically an unnecessary worry.

But then he realized something.

"Is this due to our previous bet?"

The flame once again kept its silence which only made it seem more guilty in Soren's eyes.

He couldn't help but chuckle.

Before his pilgrimage across Yarian, Soren had busied himself with researching ways to reach the 1st Circle. His plan at the time involved utilizing the taboo method of Affinity Mixing to try and obtain the material runes that Wards utilizes for his own spellforms.

During this process, he made an interesting bet against the Figment of his Imagination. The stipulation was simple: if he succeeded in utilizing Affinity Mixing, the flame would owe him a favor that may or may not threaten its own existence. On the other hand, if Soren failed to achieve the desired result, he would have to grant the flame certain freedoms of autonomy within [The Faerie Court], allowing it to easily scheme against him.

Of course, the outcome of this simple game turned out to be anything but basic.

Rather than Affinity Mixing—which he finally deemed impossible—Soren had instead resorted to Affinity Fusion, a technique he only discovered last minute during one of his trials that allowed Mesmerism to fully consume the Wards affinity.

Although it technically resulted in a success, the method he utilized was still different from the one he stipulated in the bet. This made selecting the winner practically impossible. Both The Records and Soren had good reason to believe they were correct and the other was wrong, and since there wasn't a third party that could mediate the issue, the both of them decided to nominate each other as the winner instead.

Under this decision, the Records now owed Soren a favor that he could ask for at any moment. At the same time, Soren knew that asking for that favor would trigger his own end of the bargain, giving the flame autonomy over its actions in [The Faerie Court]. This effectively transformed their bet into a transaction.

Of course, since The Records possesses knowledge on how Soren thinks, it was easily able to infer what kind of 'favor' Soren would demand.

"The favor I demanded was for you to help me in completing the Soul Alchemy ritual." Soren confessed, aware that the flame already knew. "With this favor activated, you won't be able to harm me during the ritual. That was why I even dared to consider this plan to begin with."

He scratched his hair and sighed. "Honestly, it was still a big gamble. The word 'help' isn't very specific. You could've simply tried to find a loophole by doing the bare minimum and then attacking me after its conclusion.

"But now, I am certain you won't be attempting this."

Figment smiled slightly, but Soren was certain he saw it waver for a second. "What makes you so certain?"

He shook his head. "Firstly, you had arranged the ritual's formation and even set up the Feylith Forest on your own. Both of these actions were independent—I did not issue you any commands. Therefore, it's easy to conclude that our transaction has begun. You are now attempting to help me with the ritual, so you have automatically gained the freedoms I stipulated.

"Secondly, your suggestion of competing against me during the ritual is just an attempt at creating a loophole. You are trying to use the pretext of 'helping' me as a method of attack. By doing this, you can also pressure me into changing my plans, desiring to fight over the subspace directly instead. Of course, this will result in your obligations to the favor being erased."

Soren glanced down at the Wind Whistling Leaf in his hand and smiled.

"Indeed, from your perspective, this is a far better plan than simply trying to sabotage the ritual yourself. You are handing me the key to my own doom."

The Records watched Soren for a moment, as if to try and gauge his reactions.

"Both options do indeed have their flaws and advantages. If I choose to compete against you during the ritual, you will be restricted from taking direct actions against me, since that will go against our transactional bet. But at the same time, competing against you in forming a Pseudo Concept will certainly be difficult… You will be empowered due to the accumulated corruption from the past few months.

"As for the other option—battling over the subspace while simultaneously conducting the ritual… Certainly, it will be only me who would have to undergo the Pseudo Concept creation. You will most likely focus on trying to gain control over the subspace so that you can immediately begin your attack against me once the ritual concludes. You will not be able to interfere with the ritual due to our bet's stipulation and since not interfering would technically count as 'helping,' you would not be breaking any of the rules."

Hearing Soren's analysis, the Figment of his imagination could only sigh and smile dejectedly. Indeed, it expected this level of logic coming from itself.

This… This was a battle of wits. One waged between two versions of the same being. Both possessed certain advantages, but they were, after all, no different from each other mentally.

Before Soren had even figured out how to reach the 1st Circle, he had already plotted and foreseen this sort of confrontation in the future. If he had never prepared that bet, the outcome he might have faced today would likely be far different.

Perhaps I should be grateful I even have a chance to win…

Confronting an alter ego that possessed all his abilities was one thing—but one amplified by corruption too? To anyone else, this would be a nightmare scenario…

"So then…" The cloned apparition crossed its arms, letting the warm golden light emanating from the butterflies to reflect off his glasses. "What will you choose?"

Soren closed his eyes, letting his thoughts drift freely. After a few moments, he exhaled, letting the weight fall freely off his shoulders.

His smile widened. "Option A."

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