“Mmnnh.. Omn… ah…mmn…”

  I made audible noises as I chomped and chewed on a burger.

  It was loaded with cheese, lettuce, and tomato slices.

  “Uhh…” Mia smiled at me nervously, chuckling lightly. “Yoiya…? My brother…”

  “Hm?” I perked up, looking at her with a blank expression.

  Her confusion was clear, but I didn’t understand the reason behind it.

  “That’s your tenth burger in the past five minutes… How much more are you going to eat…?”

  ~Judging from my mana so far, it’ll probably take about…

  “Forty more, maybe?” I blurted without thinking.

  “Forty!?” Mia’s eyes widened and she nearly jumped out of her seat. But she quickly calmed herself down and smiled at me. “Uh… Little bro, I don’t think I can afford that many… I’m also afraid you’ll get sick eating that many…”

  “I can pay for it. I have a bunch of money saved up from the allowances you gave me.”

  ~Plus if push comes to shove I can always replicate the currency, but I hope I won’t have to do that.

  “But still, I don’t want you eating that much. You’ll get sick or fat… or… worse…!”

  “It’ll be fine.” I casually handed the waiter another set of bills. “Give me ten more please.” I looked Mia again. “It all ends up as m—”

  I quickly shut myself up.

  My mind was elsewhere. I was solely focused on replenishing my mana as quick as I possibly could to stop my doppelganger— too focused to remember to keep up my human facade.

  “End up as what…?”” Mia looked at me, slightly tilting her head.

  My eyes darted around, trying to avoid eye contact as I slowly chewed on another big bite of the burger in my hand. “End up as… m-m-metabolized… I meant metabolized. Like… calories. Energy. You know.”

  Mia blinked. “Oh. Right. Science.”

  She said no more, but she had this subtle skepticism on her face— like she always had whenever I told a lie.

  The waiter came over and set down a tray with five large wrappers on it.

  “Your order, sir.”

  “Ah. Uhm… thank you.”

  And I continued to eat.

  …

  “Yes.”

  “Yeah, we’ll be there soon.”

  “He seems to be feeling much better now.”

  “Mhm. Alright.”

  Mia hung up her phone and walked over to me.

  “Alright, lil bro. Let’s hurry and head to the cafe before the girls get too upset.”

  “Right, let’s hurry.” I smiled and nodded, grabbing her hand. “Don’t want you to be too late.”

  “Thanks, lil bro.” She patted my head. “Still can’t believe you actually ate fifty burgers, though.”

  But all I could think about was my other self.

  Every second lost was another life possibly gone.

  Why would he target those close to me? Simply because he clearly hates me.

  But the cafe staff— Hati, Lois, Cerubi, and especially Fen— I didn’t know them all that well. But they were amongst my first contact with humanity in this world.

  Plus, I just had a feeling. A lone memory in the back of my mind I received from one of the phantoms: a bloodstained cafe. It was one of the earliest memories I received from those dreams.

  BSSST!

  The familiar ringing of an explosion echoed throughout the streets. Smoke drafted up into the air in the distance, coming from the direction of the cafe.

  ~Crap! Did I take too long to recuperate?

  Hordes of people started to run past us towards the opposite direction.

  Horns blared, passerby screamed, sirens wailed, and a helicopter hovered overhead.

  “Huh? What’s going on?” Mia looked around in a panic. Immediately, she reached out to grab me.

  I reached out to her as well. But—

  ~I’m the only one who can stop this. I can’t drag Mia into it…

  I quickly retracted my hand as the thought clicked into place. Slowly turning away, I gave her a weak smile.

  “Sorry” I mouthed at her softly.

  And I ran into the growing crowd, towards the chaos in the distance.

  Faces and lights blurred past as I rushed ahead. Channeling my mana into my legs and feet, I propelled myself further at higher speed. I controlled the wind around me, compressing it to avoid notice.

  BSSST!!!!

  Ahead of me, another explosion burst forth. Pedestrians shouted out. A piece of a skyscraper crumbled and began to fall.

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  The sound was reaching me instantly, but everything was moving slowly.

  I conjured up a simple spell. A small ball of energy. Simple, efficient.

  ~Now aim.

  I focused on the falling piece of debris

  ~Velocity max. Configuring spell to turn glass to sand, sand to earth, concrete to clay, clay to earth, metal to iron, iron to rock, rock to earth, and finally— earth to wind. Now…

  “Shoot.”

  Time resumed.

  The orb burst from my hand and hurtled through the air with a faint zip.

  With a thump, it panged against the wreckage.

  The wreckage deconstructed and in its place, wind burst out in all directions, gently blowing against my face.

  In the distance, I noticed a familiar half-smirk. It quickly reverted back to a blank expression as he disappeared into the crowd.

  I hastily followed him.

  After a few more explosions, a few more spells, and a bit more running, I turned to my right.

  In front of me, a large red banner.

  The wording was damaged and instead of its usual brilliance, it was covered in dust and soot.

  It read “--f- -ate”.

  The ‘p’ in ‘Cafe Hape’ had only been partially broken, so the sign spelled out ‘fate’.

  ~Some kind of sick joke, I’m sure. That’s what many mortals call everyday happenstance. ‘Fate’ or the work of the gods they worship— the Inner Gods— or something greater— the Outer Gods.

  ~At the very least, the idea of ‘fate’ didn’t exist in my circle of Outer Gods.

  I shook my head.

  ~This is no time to be thinking about that, though!

  I glanced at the sign once more and ran inside.

  …

  Blood.

  A deep crimson slowly spread across that wooden floor.

  Flames sparked as they leapt through the air, igniting both blood and wood planks.

  A clean and happy place— a haven of purity and innocent banter— a cafe filled with the smell of freshly brewed beans.

  None of that was left now.

  Ashes and dust lay around in piles like sand dunes in a desert, the floor stained with red blood and orange flames, the thick burning smell of gas and the taste of iron in the air.

  A boy stared down at the three lifeless bodies before him.

  I recognized them immediately by their hair colors and faces— it was Hati, Lois, and Serbi.

  The boy looked at me, his face without emotion— empty, blank, even more so than before. This other me felt nothing from killing the cafe’s staff.

  From killing the first three girls who welcomed me to this world after Mia.

  ~I was right to leave Mia behind.

  That was all I could think at the time.

  My body had frozen. Not from fear but from shock.

  Why? I had expected this… But—

  ~I came too late…

  This, too, was a clear possibility. I should have already known but I still held on hope.

  And now that very hope had been crushed, just like the three girls before me.

  “These had the weakest imprint on you, it seemed.” He sighed. “For a few human maids, they put up quite the fight. Still pathetic attempts though. As if a metal tray would hurt me.”

  I glanced towards the floor. A bent metal tray lay there, scorched and blackened..

  The other me gave a small shrug, shaking his head. His behavior seemed almost theatrical, similar to a certain somebody I knew.

  It was like… he wasn’t enjoying himself. Like he was looking for something and wasn’t able to find it in the atrocious act he just committed.

  “However.” He placed his hand on his chin. “The black haired one— Serbi, was it? She seemed stronger than the other two. Quite strong for what I’d expect of a normal mortal… That aside…” He looked straight at me. “Guess I’ll target your stronger connections next.”

  “Yoiya! There you are–” Mia’s voice called out behind me. I could hear her breathing heavily, like she had been running. Her sentence was cut off by a gasp as she looked at the scene.

  “An expected reaction.” The doppelganger said, dashing past me.

  I turned just as he passed me, making eye contact with him in a single breath as he placed a hand on my shoulder.

  My body was still frozen, I couldn’t react as quickly as I wanted.

  Questions whirled in my head, thoughts came faster than I could act on them. I couldn’t reach out fast enough.

  I opened my mouth to scream, but we were moving too fast for the sound to travel.

  ~Mia!!!

  By the time my hand stretched out, the other me was already outside my grasp. He was moving faster than me.

  I channeled my mana to my feet like before. Generated wind spells on heels and soles alike.

  I bent my knees and—

  ~Ack!

  A stabbing pain shot through my leg. A burning pain in my stomach. A weight on my ankles.

  I glanced down.

  A complex array of mana laid beneath me with swirling symmetry.

  ~A magic circle!?

  I started to cough.

  A familiar draining sensation.

  ~Mana exhaustion?

  I squinted, trying to focus within the smoke.

  ~The gas… Agh… Poison again… damn it…!

  Just as I felt my body weakening, glowing chains shot out of the magic array and wrapped around my legs and arms.

  Then thin dark needles shot out that pierced my body and set my blood ablaze.

  ~AGHHH!!!

  I pushed through the pain, realigning my sights onto the other me. He was still moving steadily towards Mia.

  Mia stood there frozen, barely moving.

  She was human, after all. She couldn’t perceive, much less take action at this speed.

  But I could.

  ~One more spell.

  ~Something simple.

  A ball of mana formed in my palm as I raised it once more.

  ~Something fast.

  The ball reshaped itself into an arrow.

  ~Something that will definitely hit its mark. Something like…

  I remembered a memory from what the doppelganger implanted in me. A missile, one that seeks out heat. A homing device. Homing.

  My eyes burned as I put all my focus on aiming at the other me.

  ~Fire.

  The arrow zipped through the air, seeking out its target— the center of the doppelganger’s back.

  “Too bad.” I heard him murmur.

  Just before the arrow made contact with the doppelganger’s shirt, it stopped midair, vibrating as it struggled to pierce an invisible wall.

  An invisible wall— a barrier, to be exact.

  In an instant, the arrow inverted on itself and started a new path— towards me.

  From there, I realized.

  ~It was over the moment I arrived here.

  Swsh!

  The sound of a blade cutting through the air echoed in my ears.