The Villain's Story

Chapter 758: A long lost desire(2).

'Mimic.'

My exact thoughts when this monster appeared before me. Thankfully, it was no Eldritch Horror or any of the sort but rather a mimic. Monster's like those had appeared in Dungeon's on Earth, having wiped out entire teams...

But this would be doable, after all, there was no one to mimic except her. Normally, a mimic would kill the person it would mimic and perform their role while secretly killing everyone else using its own set of special powers, along with those of the person it mimicked.

Since she was directly facing her own mimic, it would be doable. Though she did wonder why it took a more mature appearance of her. Mimics were usually an exact copy of the person they mimicked.

She was also confused why she was so... docile. Most mimics in this situation would abandon all pretense and focus only on killing whatever was in front of them. The fact that this one was more eager to start a conversation was strange, but not unique.

'Is it trying to extract information?'

Furthermore, the mimic did not copy her perfectly... rather it took on a form that was more mature, taller, and bigger in some aspects. It weirded her out in more ways than one.

The mimic stood up, and she had to admit it was like she was looking at Alan, perhaps only an inch shorter.

"Well, Was I always such a quiet girl?"

The other her put her finger on her chin as she appeared to be thinking. She flicked her finger and sent a reverberating wave of mana all throughout the strange space, transforming it into a place Sabrina knew well.

"Let's exercise~ It's been a while since I last did this."

The Colosseum in Rome, Italy. An exact replica of it, down to the cracks in the stone, the clouds in the sky and even the angle of the sun. An exact replica of when Sabrina herself had seen it when she went there with her family.

"... What?"

She would know, she never forgot something, minor details or not. The other her didn't give her time to think.

"Ah, the Earthly smell, I missed it. Earth was nice."

She tapped the ground with her feet, and a dark hole appeared from which a staff arose. Sabrina couldn't take her eyes off of that magnificent staff. Something that humans, dwarves, or even elves could not hope to make.

One made of ethereal dark wood, in which obsidian shards were embedded in intricate patterns, yet the jewel it held captivated her like no other. A brilliance Alan's eyes could not match, and a beauty that seemed to...seemed to.

She jumped back, narrowly escaping whatever harrowing magic the jewel possessed, No, that was no ordinary jewel.

"An eye?"

She was certain she saw the vague form of a pupil appear in the jewel, looking to the right.

It was looking at something else, entirely focused on it. Her staff paled in comparison to whatever the other her was holding, but she didn't have time to compare. Content first released on M_VLEM_PYR.

The other her tapped the magnificent staff on the ground, and ten spheres of black the size of a human head appeared all around her.

'Metal and Darkness?'

A combination of metal magic and darkness, something she hadn't seen before. Eight of the ten spheres launched themselves at her, two remained behind, at each side of the other her.

Sabrina tapped her own staff on the ground as ten decagons made of mana appeared all around her, promptly deflecting the spheres. They exploded behind her, but that was the least of her worries.

'... They are just vessels.'

The metal magic was used to create a vessel, while darkness was used to merely hide and propel whatever was inside. In the simplest term, it was a surprise bomb.

It could be filled with a curse, any other element or even material objects. She could hide whatever she wanted in those spheres.

She was honestly impressed, but not entirely, she had something like this as well, and hers was simply better.

The other her, however, had a more...dumbfounded expression.

"Deflection??? What the hell? I shouldn't be a grand mage yet?"

The other her had a completely dumbfounded expression on her face, though it was hard to tell. Sabrina could hardly tell the difference between her normal expression and dumbfounded expression.

"Wait, was I always a genius? Well, I am, but this? This is abnormal...?"

She didn't know what she was talking about, but she couldn't remain on the defensive all the time. A thousand magic arrows materialized all around her, filling the entire colosseum.

She had her own version of the spell, though less elusive. A thousand magic arrows, and each held a secret of its own.

"..."

The other her looked at the sky, now covered in magic arrows, as Sabrina launched them all towards her. Some were bigger than the rest, some were smaller yet the most deadly. Some were flash bangs, bursts of ice.

"A unique spell in each magic arrow...?"

But that was not all, the real attack spells were coming. Dark spear, with its own twist, and Lance of Darkness.

She had to admit, these two were becoming a personal favorite.

"Triple casting?! Hey, I'm not that talented! I should know!?"

The colosseum was bombarded by a thousand magic arrows, and only fifty of them were the real deal. The rest were all distractions.

Her spell was merely better, rather than spend effort in trying to hide the uniqueness of every arrow, she made it easy to notice.

Why hide it? Let them worry about each one rather than reveal it at the very end. It messed with the mind more as time passed.

If someone existed that could keep track of all a thousand arrows individually and deal with them, she'd simply summon ten thousand, each special in their own way.

The definition of spamming.

"Strike true."

The other hers eyes widened as she heard Sabrina talk, and every projectile locked onto her, and soon the colosseum was destroyed. In but seconds, the conjured space was laid to waste, as the dust settled, she saw what she had managed to accomplish.

Merely a small scratch from her Lance of Darkness. That was all the barrage had managed to do.

'Less than expected.'

She hadn't expected something so weak to do the mimic in, if it had, she would be disappointed in herself. Though the fact she failed to draw blood was annoying.

"... This is strange, first that dude out there that makes my jaw tremble for reasons unknown, and now this iteration of me being completely different..."

The two spheres had swallowed most of her magic arrows, and the other her had dealt with the rest. How, she did not know yet.

Sabrina stood her ground, and aimed her staff at the other her. She had more up her sleeve, but wanted to know what the other her could do.

What unique powers did this mimic possess? She wanted to find out more.

"You see, I can also do that."

A thousand spheres materialized around the other her, and launched themselves at her. She smirked, simply creating more shields and focusing her mana to two special runes on her scapulae.

"... Runes? Old ones."

Not a single sphere managed to damage her, some had blown up into various spells before contact, while some were just heavy balls of metal.

'That's it?'

Was the black sphere the only spell the other her knew? If it was, that would be disappointing. Sabrina charged up a spell, muttering some words as it would soon be finished.

"That's enough."

The other her, for a brief moment, turned her staff to her, and Sabrina felt exposed. The eye that it held saw through everything, before returning to its original position, as if annoyed it had been disturbed. That eye really freaked her out, merely knowing about it

"I see now."

Her spell was abruptly stopped.

"You're not at the level of a grand mage yet, of course your not... You're using runes to complement your mental prowess, and to control your mana better, to give it form, elasticity, density.... Whatever you want.

Your entire body is covered in runes, emergency runes, passive runes, every kind of rune, along with some I can't perceive very well. You're using all kinds of runes...

And the Arcane Tongue, The language of dragons...

I, shouldn't be able to do that yet."

The space turned cold, and Sabrina enhanced her defenses as an amount of mana she couldn't fathom started to move.

"This is all very strange. Show me more... What happened to me in this turn?"

The two spheres behind her merged into one, and from the merged ball of darkness, emerged a black tiger the size of a car, with bladed weapons on its arms and a bladed tail.

"Meet Sebastian, He will be my knight... unfortunately, the dragon outside can't protect his mage here."

A wicked smile appeared as the tiger charged at her, while the other her leisurely cast spells from behind.