「The Twenty-First Floor – Divine Quest
Description: Welcome to the Room of Reflection! In these ten sequential rooms, you will fight against a copy of yourself with all your power and abilities plus a bit more to provide a challenge! Here, you will discover your flaws and strengths, allowing you to come out stronger than ever or in a body bag!
For the First Reflective Room, you need to reduce your enemies HP to 0%.
Limitation 1: Enemies are limited to within your Rank.
Limitation 2: You may retreat from the floor at any time, but upon re-entry, you would have to resume from the exact situation you were in at the time.
Limitation 3: Any external help summoned (Combat Pets, Attack Mounts) will also be mirrored and forced to fight separately.
Limitation 4: This Floor's Shadow has 100% your full power.
Provision 1: You have full use of all your powers and abilities in the same way as you would outside.
Provision 2: You may use all items within your Inventory to help out, but any item used can only be used once during the battle.
Provision 3: The Shadow mimics all forms of your powers, (Techniques, Equipment, Class, Titles, Bloodline, etc) but cannot use items.
Rewards: Score Points, 1 Silver-tier Reward Selection.」
Looking at this, Draco and Eva's faces hardened. This was more brutal than what Helia Nuer had described. The Mimics/Mannequins were supposed to only copy one's class skills, giving you much leeway in fighting them using other means.
Otherwise, why the fuck would Draco and Eva have specifically focused on enhancing their bloodlines when they had only 100 days inside the time dilation?
It had seemed like the best choices given their knowledge, but any power they had gained now turned out to have also benefited their Shadows.
Draco had watched many shows where the main characters would have to fight copies of themselves at some point. It was a recurring thing that was not new to anyone, and in most cases, those clones would use the main characters' powers better than themselves, that or they would be initially shitty but catch up quickly.
In either scenario, the way to beat them was usually not to fight them endlessly, but to use some philosophical concept that was executed to end the fight.
While it was certainly great for storytelling, Draco was convinced that was not going to happen here. Even if it might have worked once or twice, who even had the brainpower to come up with ten different philosophical concepts one after the other…
No one better than he and Eva knew what kind of powers they had and no manner of philosophical bullshit would work.
For the first time, the White-Haired Duo regretted being so OP. Maybe they should have listened to the AI and been nicer to it, limiting the scope of their power and adhering to the balance a lot more.
Alas, not even the world of Boundless had any medicine for regret. In the split second the White-Haired Duo had analyzed their fighting chances, the two Shadows began attacking them ferociously.
Draco's Shadow began by using Peerless Sword Arts, Sword Skill 350: Wind Grinder! It spread each sword out and began spinning, turning into a razor-like disc that was moving faster than the eye could see.
It rushed over on the ground like a wheel, cutting everything in its path like tofu. Draco frowned and retaliated with Peerless Sword Arts, Sword Skill 290: Earthen Crush!
His two blades became coated with brownish energy that made them increasingly heavy, and Draco took a step forward to swing them towards the incoming razor.
The brownish energy left the blades and magnified into two giant blades of earth that struck the incoming Wind Grinder. The two powers clashed and canceled each other out immediately.
The Shadow grinned and Apported behind Draco, who was already moving to defend himself. Both he and the Shadow used their Dragorugio sword's active skill Black Flame as they clashed.
Destruction Energy met Destruction Energy and they both canceled each other out. Both Dracos began striking at each either rapidly while not being forced to take a step back.
The speed of their arms and swords clanging was in a way quite comical, looking like some low-quality movie special effects, but the shockwave it created were truly terrifying because anyone within 300 meters would be cut into pieces if they were Rank 3 and below.
They kept like this for a long while before breaking away. Then, both Draco smiled cruelly as they struck each other using Paragon Sword Style, Sword Skill 1: Inclined Slash.
However, the moment their attacks were about to clash, they switched their stances to Paragon Sword Style, Sword Skill 360: Counter Kill!
They were both attempting to Counter Kill each other! This was Draco's only idea to vanquish his foe as he knew that Counter Kill, once successful, was an instant KO.
The moment both swords collided, both Dracos displayed expressions of horror, realizing the stupidity of what they had just done. It was essentially making two Unstoppable Forces collide.
The fallout of such a thing would be extremely terrible, and this showed itself here as both Dracos had all four of their limbs explode into bloodmist and were blown back, denting themselves into the walls.
Draco groaned in pain as his system-based HP regeneration kicked in, the same happening for the Shadow. However, it was too slow as he directly used his bloodline's Ouroboros' Eternity to recover his body to perfection.
He rose to his feet, noticing that the Shadow did the same as it had also used Ouroboros' Eternity to recover itself. Draco cricked his neck and picked his swords that had been flung to the side back up.
He noticed that both had lost a chunk of durability. He frowned and beckoned to the Shadow, who cautiously made his way over. Draco then took out Mjolnir and his blacksmithing set to begin repairing his items.
The Shadow saw this and was intrigued, but it didn't have Draco's Tradeskills. Draco also took its weapons and repaired them for it, bringing them back to full durability.
Satisfied, he put his tools away and both sides entered a battle-ready stance once more. Draco's back burst open with black angelic wings while the Shadow did the same. The two then took to the air and began clashing like primordial beasts.
They used all variations of their Paragon and Peerless Sword Skills. Draco even felt his bottlenecked Sword Skills begin to progress a bit as new ideas came to mind as he fought himself.
He hadn't yet completed the Peerless Sword Style set. This set was about combining Subjective Magic and the elements with his swordplay. Each element had a 100 Sword Skills, starting from fire, to water, to earth to wind.
He was currently unable to add the advanced elements to his Peerless Sword Style, which would have to wait until he reached Rank 4 at least.
However, this was becoming moot the more he fought, and he felt that he could at least incorporate some elements of lightning into his attacks to start the 401st sword skill.
In his swings, one could see the trails of electricity building up and growing, allowing his strikes to have a small paralysis effect. It built up continuously over the next few hours as the battle raged on.
Eventually, Draco's eyes burst with lightning as he roared, raising his sword into the air as crackles of electricity blew apart the area.
"Peerless Sword Style, Sword Skill 401: Lightning Crescent!"
He swung his blades in a downward slash motion, and what was shocking was that two larger auric versions of his blades overlaid themselves on his strike, these auric versions made of pure electricity.
When they clashed with the defense of the Shadow who used the earth element to wisely counter, the earth element defense was smashed apart as the Shadow was blown back.
It took some damage from that which was quickly healed, but both Draco and it knew that the battle had evolved. Now that Draco created a skill, he discovered how he was supposed to beat his copy.
It was direct, either evolve during battle to surpass your previous limits or eventually fall!
Draco smiled. "Time to show you why Eva even fell in love with me in the first place!"
………
On her side, Eva countered a light beam with one of her own. Her face became solemn as she floated into the air and used Spacetime Regulation to twist time in the area of the Shadow.
However, her Shadow smiled with disdain and also did the same to her. As such, she was forced to correct the temporal distortion in her area while the Shadow cleared its own.
Having confirmed that such an easy method wouldn't work on it, Eva spread her arms out and used Element Regulation to summon a tsunami towards the Shadow of herself.
The Shadow simply created a huge dam using the Earth element, blocking the water. Eva scowled and called up a cyclone that merged with the water, hurtling towards herself.
Meanwhile, her other self simply raised her hands and created a giant fireball that she sent flying towards the cyclone, exploding it when it got close.
This dispersed Eva's attack with ease, making her sigh. The Celestial Beauty became serious once more as she manifested a throne of holiness and sat on it.
Her golden eyes glowed with power. Immediately, all of her Angels were summoned, the entire angelic force from Seraphs to bottom tier Angels came out.
They naturally first paid their respects to the Goddess, which Eva didn't mind, but they were outraged when they saw her Shadow manifest the same holy throne, before summoning the same array of angels, only that they were Shadows too.
Those angels didn't say a word, but they mimicked the actions of showing reverence towards Shadow Eva, just like the real Angels had just done, before becoming enraged at the sigh of that 'imposter'.
Eva connected their minds in a network and let them understand what was going on, so they calmed down and got ready to fight.
"Angels of the Goddess, form up! Angelic Divine Formation: SLAUGHTER!" Angel Micheal, the overall commander of the Angel Army, roared with power.
The Angels roared and assumed formation, which was easily mirrored by the opposing angels. Still, without being daunted, the Angels of Eva rushed forward to do battle with the Shadow Angels.
The clash was brutal. It resembled a scene from those Roman Catholic epics, a sky full of Angels fighting, only instead of Demons, the other side had Shadow versions of themselves. Blood, feathers, and pristine robes flew and fell all over, painting a tragic scene.
Both Eva and her Shadow version watched on coldly, fighting their own battle as both attempted to manipulate the laws of reality using their powers as the Supreme Being to grant their side an advantage.
However, it was akin to two hackers of the same skill level and with the same level of equipment doing battle. It was just an endless set of hijack over hijack, with neither able to come out on top.
Eva's eyes became colder and colder as the hours passed and she was still locked in an eternal stalemate with Shadow Eva. Most of her Angels had died so many times she had stopped counting, having to be revived by her using Bloodline Energy and come out to jump into the fight once more.
This simply wasn't sustainable and neither was it wise. Eva knew that in order to defeat her copy, she would have to surpass her own limits, but it was not as easy for as it was for Draco as her soulmate was a combat freak with an Innate Technique Generator.
Eva was certainly talented but her strengths lay in other aspects. Draco was extremely skilled in manipulating multiple sources of power and could create techniques of all kinds with ease, yet he sucked at developing his bloodline.
Eva was the opposite, extremely skilled with her bloodline and manipulating a few sources of power to a much greater degree, but took more than a while to create techniques.
Eva's eyes narrowed as her golden pupils shifted to a black color. Immediately, a dark swirl emerged from within, and the Angels that were fighting on her side screamed in agony as their bodies began to warp and twist.
They then shifted into their former eldritch forms, led at the forefront by the Void Terror himself, Cthulhu, and the Mind Flayer, the Beholder. The other Angels also changed into horrible monstrosities beyond the comprehension of man.
Sorry, but the fact that we all viewed this means that we shall meet with an incomprehensible fate tonight. It was good knowing you all.
The Shadow Eva was shocked by this but couldn't mimic Eva's actions as it was limited to what Eva traditionally had. The balance between Eva having the Abyssal Eye and the Heavenly Eye was not recognized by the system.
Since Eva knew she couldn't as easily create new techniques to break her limits, she decide to use the alternate route, using abilities outside the box aka unorthodox skills!
The various evil entities began fighting the Shadow Angels, but the holy beings were quickly losing. Angels were 'only' on par with Demons, and in those grand paintings, we saw them fight to the death with each side taking losses.
However, the forces of the Abyss and annihilation were the ones that both Angels and Demons always put their differences aside to fight together, because they were too powerful.
Demons wanted to trick and mislead while Angels wanted to nurture and guide. Eldritch and Abyss entities wanted to corrupt and assimilate. They were simply the worst and the most troublesome.
Without the help of the Demons who could only promise a stalemate for the fight, the Shadow Angels were easily being beaten back, with some of them slowly being corrupted and assimilated.
Shadow Eva opened her mouth wide as if she was screeching in agony, something that made real Eva smile widely. She knew exactly how agonizing it would be to have one's Angels assimilated like this, but she didn't care.
This kinda shit would never happen to her, and could only happen to others. This was what it meant to be either Draco or Eva, the strongest duo in existence!
…………..
「Congratulations on completing: Tower of Babylon Twenty-First Floor
Time elapsed: 170:23:01
Objectives complete: All
Assessment: EX+
Reward:
25,000 Score Points
1 Treasure Selection Reward – Peak Silver Grade」
Draco and Eva panted deeply as they stood over the bodies of their Shadows, which were slowly decomposing. They had spent an entire week, seven bloody days, in nonstop combat with these freaks, slowly whittling away at them until they finally won.
In this time, Draco and Eva had been forced to make multiple breakthroughs in their power whether they liked it or not. Their gains were not simple, and even though they were exhausted as fuck, they were extremely excited as well.
As the floor decomposed and they took their rewards, the White-Haired Duo re-appeared in the castle. They shared a look and entered the Inner Universe right away, heading to Eva's Heavenly Palace to digest their gains.
Once there, they both slumped into sofas, adopting loose attires as they lazed about. After fighting for so long, this was the least they could do to relax their overheated brains which had been constantly planning and calculating.
Draco spoke lazily. "You know, I think I finally unlocked Tier 5 Body of Godliness. It was through that I was able to somewhat add onto my advantages."
Eva seemed pleased. "Oh? I actually broke through to Tier 5 Void of Perfection, so that's perfect. Let's commune and share our progress."
Draco and Eva closed their eyes, connecting their mind fully and sharing their experiences without holding back. Soon, Eva's body trembled like mini explosions were happening in her blood cells while an aura emerged from Draco that spread out far and wide.
By syncing, they had unlocked what the other lacked, instantly elevating themselves to Tier 5 Control in the fullest sense. This was something only the two of them could do due to their special bond.
"Amazing." Eva commented as she began using Tier 5 Body of Godliness to change her skin tone. She went from creamy, to caramel, to tanned, to dark, to yellow, and even to red.
She also changed her features to copy others like Roma, Zaine, and Hikari. Eva then had a great idea and climbed on the couch.
"Hey Draco, look at this." Eva giggled as she pointed her ass towards him and made its size increase until it was as big and perfectly shaped as Zaine's.
Draco's eyes bulged as he jumped to his feet, smacking Eva's bum as he watched it jiggle naturally. "My god, this is God-like! I still prefer your natural ass though, but this ability is great!"
Suddenly, Draco's eyes lit with nefarious intent as he tried something that every man wanted to do. He was shocked to note that yes, he could increase the size of his penis at Tier 5 Control.
He then gazed at Eva who was suddenly terrified as he gazed at the horse-like dong behind her, and Draco smiled as he grabbed each buttcheek firmly, not letting Eva go.
"Time to test your durability, my dear Heavenly Beauty." Draco spoke in an insidious tone as he placed his monster on the entrance of Eva's butthole.
"Draco wait, let's talk about-… OHHHHHAAIIIIIIII" Eva screeched towards the end as her entire rectum was invaded by a flexible and warm baseball bat-like existence.
One could even see the snake showing on her flat stomach, pulsing as blood continued to pump into it the keep it erect. Eva simply fell into the pillows of the couch as she drooled stupidly, her eyes unfocused as she was overwhelmed by the sensation.
The Celestial Beauty had cleverly cut out the pain, leaving her only with pleasure, not to mention that her current body suffered no damage from this kind of act. It was just her mind that crashed for a bit as it tried to process this intense feeling.
As cruel as Draco was, he patiently waited for Eva to come back to the surface before he pulled back and pushed in all the way once more, sending Eva right back into the heavens.