Chapter 93: The Disappearing Clone
David stared at the prompt for several long seconds.
Passive Skill Detected.
To activate Shadow Battalion...
Imagine stepping beyond yourself.
"...That’s it?"
He waited.
The screen didn’t elaborate.
No helpful explanation.
No tutorial.
No demonstration.
Just four words that somehow managed to explain absolutely nothing.
David let out a quiet breath through his nose.
"Very informative."
The system, unsurprisingly, offered no response.
His gaze drifted away from the floating screen and settled on Holly.
She was still asleep.
Her breathing rose and fell in a slow, steady rhythm, her cheek resting lightly against his chest as though she’d found the most comfortable pillow in the world.
A tiny strand of hair had fallen across her face again.
Without thinking, David gently brushed it aside.
She gave the faintest little hum in her sleep before unconsciously leaning closer.
"...Guess you’re not helping either."
A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
Satisfied she wasn’t about to wake up, he turned his attention back to the translucent window.
"Imagine stepping beyond yourself..."
He repeated the sentence silently.
Stepping beyond himself.
What was that even supposed to mean?
He’d activated every other skill simply by willing it into existence.
This one suddenly wanted philosophy.
"...Maybe I’m overthinking it."
There was only one way to find out.
David slowly raised his free hand, careful not to disturb Holly.
He focused.
Shadow Battalion.
For several seconds...
Nothing happened.
No light.
No strange sensation.
No dramatic system message.
"...Seriously?"
He glanced around the room as if expecting a clone to appear late.
Nothing.
"I feel mildly offended."
The silence answered him.
"...Fair enough."
He lowered his hand again.
Apparently, simply wanting a clone wasn’t enough.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"No..."
"If it were that simple..."
"The system wouldn’t have bothered giving me instructions."
His gaze drifted back to the prompt.
Imagine stepping beyond yourself.
Not...
Imagine creating a clone.
Stepping beyond...
Beyond...
His fingers absentmindedly tapped against the blanket covering Holly.
Then something clicked.
"...Oh."
His expression shifted.
"I’ve been thinking about the clone."
He shook his head once.
"...That’s backwards."
If the wording mattered...
Then maybe the skill wasn’t asking him to imagine another version of himself.
Maybe...
It was asking him to stop thinking of himself as only one person.
The thought sounded ridiculous.
Even inside his own head.
"...Only one way to know."
This time, David didn’t picture another body appearing beside him.
He didn’t imagine a clone at all.
Instead...
He imagined himself standing.
Not physically.
Mentally.
As though there were another version of him quietly getting to his feet while his real body remained exactly where it was.
He imagined taking a single step forward...
And leaving himself behind.
The instant that thought settled in his mind...
Something answered.
David’s pupils contracted.
A strange sensation spread through his chest.
It wasn’t painful.
Nor was it uncomfortable.
It felt...
Wrong.
Like discovering an extra heartbeat where there shouldn’t have been one.
His breathing hitched.
"...What..."
The feeling spread through his shoulders.
Down his arm.
Across his fingertips.
For one impossible moment...
His body no longer felt singular.
It felt...
Shared.
David frowned.
His vision wavered ever so slightly.
Not blurred.
Split.
Like his eyes couldn’t decide where they were supposed to focus.
He blinked once.
The feeling didn’t disappear.
Instead...
It grew stronger.
Then he noticed it.
His outstretched hand hadn’t moved.
Yet...
Another hand was slowly reaching forward.
It emerged from the same space as his own, ghostlike at first, almost transparent enough to see through.
David’s breath caught.
"...No way."
The translucent fingers curled.
Solidified.
An arm followed.
Then a shoulder.
Slowly...
Silently...
As though someone were stepping out of perfectly still water.
David could only stare.
The arm continued forward.
A second shoulder slipped free.
Then a torso.
A leg.
Another.
Within seconds, what had begun as a translucent outline slowly gained color, definition, and weight until a young man stood silently beside the bed.
He looked...
Exactly like David.
Same face.
Same black hair.
Same height.
Even the faint crease between his brows matched perfectly.
The clone lowered his hand and flexed his fingers once.
Then twice.
As though making sure they belonged to him.
David simply stared.
"..."
"..."
Neither of them spoke.
The room fell so quiet that David could hear the soft ticking of the wall clock.
The clone slowly lifted his head.
Their eyes met.
For one strangely uncomfortable moment...
It felt like staring into a mirror.
Except...
The reflection was staring back on its own.
"...This is weird."
The clone finally broke the silence.
David blinked.
"...I was literally about to say that."
The clone frowned.
"...No."
"You already did."
David opened his mouth.
Stopped.
"...Right."
He had.
Or...
At least he’d thought it.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"Wait."
He looked at the clone again.
"You heard that?"
The clone tilted his head.
"I don’t think I heard it."
"It was more like..."
He searched for the words.
"...I knew it."
David’s brow furrowed.
Because...
That was exactly how it had felt from his side too.
The moment the clone had spoken...
There’d been no surprise.
Instead, it had felt strangely familiar.
Almost like remembering a thought he’d only just had.
"...That’s..."
"Weird?" the clone offered.
David nodded.
"...Yeah."
"We’re definitely sharing something."
The clone looked down at his own hands again before clenching them into fists.
"I remember everything."
David blinked.
"What?"
"I remember being a kid."
"I remember learning to ride a bike."
"I remember meeting Holly."
"I remember..."
The clone’s voice trailed off.
"...About ten minutes ago."
David stared at him.
"So..."
"You have all my memories?"
The clone looked back at him as though the answer was obvious.
"...Don’t you have mine?"
David instinctively reached inward, though he had no idea what he was trying to feel.
Nothing.
Yet...
At the same time...
Everything.
The clone standing before him didn’t feel like a stranger.
Nor did he feel like another person.
It was almost as though a tiny corner of David’s own mind had been peeled away and given a body.
Separate.
Yet connected.
"...That’s..."
He let out a slow breath.
"Actually kind of amazing."
The clone nodded.
"...I was thinking the same thing."
"You keep saying that."
"Because you keep thinking it."
"...Fair."
For a brief moment, neither of them spoke again.
They simply looked at one another, both trying—and failing—to wrap their heads around what had just happened.
Then...
The clone’s attention drifted.
Almost absentmindedly.
His gaze wandered around the room.
The chair.
The desk.
The half-open curtains.
Until...
His eyes slowly lowered.
They landed on Holly.
Still asleep.
Still curled comfortably against David beneath the blanket.
The clone froze.
David noticed immediately.
"...What?"
The clone didn’t answer.
His eyes grew wider.
Then wider still.
His mouth slowly fell open.
He looked from Holly...
Back to David...
Then back to Holly again.
"..."
"...Holy..."
David frowned.
"Hm?"
The clone suddenly stumbled backward, spun around, and slapped both hands over his own eyes.
"HOLY SHIT!"
David nearly jumped out of his skin.
"Keep your voice down!"
"THAT’S A NAKED WOMAN!"
His voice cracked into a panicked whisper halfway through the sentence.
"I JUST GOT HERE!"
David’s face flushed crimson.
"You didn’t just get here!"
"I DID!"
"You’ve existed for less than a minute!"
"EXACTLY!"
The clone pointed wildly in Holly’s direction without daring to look.
"I OPEN MY EYES—"
He immediately corrected himself.
"I DON’T EVEN KNOW IF I HAVE EYES YET!"
"And THE FIRST THING I SEE IS A NAKED WOMAN!"
David instinctively pulled the blanket a little higher over Holly’s shoulder.
"Would you stop yelling?"
"I AM STOPPING!"
"YOU’RE YELLING TOO!"
"I’M YELLING BECAUSE YOU’RE YELLING!"
The words had barely left the clone’s mouth before David reacted entirely on instinct.
Disappear.
The thought flashed through his mind.
The clone vanished.
Not exploded.
Not dissolved.
He was simply yanked backward as though an invisible force had grabbed him by the chest, his entire body collapsing into countless wisps of darkness before shooting straight back into David.
The room fell silent.
So silent that David could hear his own heartbeat.
"..."
"..."
His eyes snapped toward Holly.
She shifted slightly against him.
David froze.
A long second passed.
Then she let out the tiniest sleepy hum, nuzzled a little closer against his chest, and settled once more.
Still asleep.
David slowly closed his eyes.
"...That was close."
A translucent notification quietly appeared in the corner of his vision.
Shadow Battalion Deactivated.
Active Clones: 0 / 3
David stared at the message for a long moment.
Then he glanced toward the empty spot where the clone had been standing only moments earlier.
A clone.
One that could think.
Talk.
React.
And apparently embarrass him almost as much as he embarrassed himself.
A slow smile spread across his face.
"...Yeah."
"This skill..."
He let out a quiet breath through his nose.
"...is ridiculously overpowered."
His gaze drifted back down to Holly’s peaceful sleeping face.
"...I’ll give it a proper test tomorrow."
For tonight...
He’d caused enough trouble.