Tara has been running for hours, dashing through the forest, putting distance between himself and the devastation he's created. Most of the forest is ordinary—trees, undergrowth, the usual woodland fare. But every now and then, he spots something clearly magical. Mushrooms glowing in colors that don't exist in nature. A tree with actual eyes watching him pass. A squirrel with three tails chattering at what appears to be a sentient rock. He can identify these things clearly enough, but he's moving too fast to stop and explore them in detail. "Interesting," Tara thinks, dashing past a bush that's actively trying to poison him. "But I don't have time for magical tourism right now." He needs to keep moving.
But he's been thinking about Demonic Fission. He's selected it, but he hasn't actually used it yet. He's been too busy running, too busy escaping.
Tara slows his pace, finally coming to a stop. "Okay," he thinks, looking around. "I've run far enough. Put enough distance between me and the hideout. Now it's time to test it out. I need to know what Demonic Fission actually does, how it works, what happens when I split. I can't keep running blind—I need to understand my abilities if I'm going to survive."
He checks his storage counter. 17.26M units. After hours of running and dashing, he's gained energy—the net gain from generation minus the cost of movement.
"Let me try it," Tara thinks, settling into a small clearing. It's just a normal clearing, nothing particularly special about it. "Let me see what happens when I split."
He focuses on the ability, on dividing, on splitting himself. And suddenly, he feels something—a pull, a division, a split. His form separates, and there are two of him. Two pyramids, identical, sitting side by side. "Hey there ... myself!"
But something is different. Something is wrong.
"I'm smaller," Tara thinks—both pyramids think, simultaneously. "I'm... I'm smaller than I was before."
He looks at himself—or rather, both of him look at each other. Each pyramid is noticeably smaller than the original. The sides are shorter, the form is more compact.
"I was about 29 cm per side before," Tara realizes. "Now I'm about 23 cm. That's a noticeable decrease. The size seems to scale with something, but not linearly—it's based on volume, so it scales with the cube root of whatever determines my size."
But there is something else. He checks his stats—or rather, both of him check their stats.
**CLONE 1:**
- **m:** 24
- **v:** 24
- **Energy Generated:** 6,912 units per second
- **Energy Stored:** 8.63M units
**CLONE 2:**
- **m:** 24
- **v:** 24
- **Energy Generated:** 6,912 units per second
- **Energy Stored:** 8.63M units
"Wait," Tara thinks. "Each clone has m=24, half of the original m=48. But v stays the same. v=24 for both clones. What is 'm' anyway? Is it matter? Mass? Well, if my matter is directly proportional to my size... well, I guess size does matter."
He checks the energy: "The stored energy—the 17.26M units I had after hours of running—was split equally between them. Each got half. Same goes for the energy generation."
"So when I split," Tara realizes, "m, stored energy, and energy generation all split proportionally. v stays constant. Each clone generates less individually, but together they match the original total."
He merges the two clones back together, returning to one pyramid with m=48. Then he tries splitting into the maximum number of clones.
**CLONES 1-24:**
- Each clone: **m:** 2
- **v:** 24
- **Energy Generated:** 576 units per second per clone
- **Energy Stored:** ~720K units per clone
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"Perfect," Tara realizes. "This confirms it. And also, I can create up to my level number of clones—24 maximum since I'm level 24. And when I split into the maximum, each clone has m=2, which means the minimum m is 2. Each clone has its own independent energy pool—if one spends energy, it doesn't get replenished from the others."
"I can't make a clone with m=3 or 5, or any odd number. That means I can only split into clones where m is in multiples of 2. That makes sense—I started with m=2 at level 1."
"I'm currently twenty-four pyramids having the same thought simultaneously," all 24 of him think at once. "Which raises the philosophical question: which one is the 'real' me? The answer is probably all of us. Or none of us. We're all equally confused about our existence, so at least that's consistent."
He merges all the clones back together, returning to one pyramid. m: 48. Energy generation: 13,824 units/sec. All the stored energy pools together: 17.26M units.
"So splitting will make weaker clones than myself," Tara thinks. "But it gives me multiple perspectives and points of action. And when I merge, all the stored energy pools back together. That's useful—I can redistribute energy by merging and splitting."
Still, having multiple bodies, multiple perspectives, multiple points of action—that has its own value.
Tara continues moving later in the day, dashing through the forest. As he moves, he spots more magical oddities, but exploration is a luxury he can't afford right now.
"He's probably coming after me, Twitchy Twitch," Tara thinks. "He knows I'm conscious, alive. I'm sure he can move faster than me—I only have this instant movement skill that's useful in battle but not so good for covering distance. I can't just keep running forever—not that I have legs to run with, but you get the idea. I need to face my problems—figuratively speaking, since I'm already facing everything literally."
"Enough bad jokes, I need a plan," Tara thinks. "I need to be proactive, not just reactive. I need to know what's happening, where he is, what he's doing."
An idea begins to form in his mind.
"Yes," Tara thinks, a sense of determination filling him. "That's it."
---
## Tejran's Pursuit
Tejran has been searching for hours, following the faint magical signature left by the Void Binding Elixir. The artifact is moving, constantly, putting distance between itself and the hideout. But the signature is there, a trail he can follow.
And then, something happens. A massive magical disturbance. An explosion of pure energy, so powerful it ripples through the magical currents of the world. The mage feels it—a wave of power, raw and uncontrolled, emanating from somewhere ahead.
"What?" the mage whispers, stopping in his tracks. "What was that? That energy... that's massive. That's... that's the artifact!"
He can feel it. The energy signature matches. The artifact has released an enormous amount of stored energy.
"Indeed!" the mage exclaims, his voice rising. "Indeed! The artifact is using its stored energy! It's fighting the forest monsters! Jahahahaha!"
The thought is both exciting and concerning. The artifact is powerful. More powerful than he's realized. If it can release that much energy at once, it is a threat. But it is also exactly what he needs. A souled artifact with that much power? Perfect for his plans. Moreover, that pyramid should be exhausted after such an attack.
The explosion has created a massive disturbance, but it will fade quickly. He needs a more reliable way to track it.
The mage reaches into his robes, pulling out a small glass container. Inside, dozens of tiny creatures buzz and crawl—mana tracking bugs. Small, magical insects that can sense and follow mana signatures, especially powerful ones.
"Find it," the mage commands, opening the container. "Find the artifact. Follow its energy signature. Lead me to it."
The bugs swarm out, their wings buzzing, their senses attuned to magical energy. They spread out, searching, hunting. Most of them head in a specific direction. Others scatter in different directions, searching for any trace of the artifact's energy signature.
The mage follows the majority, his eyes gleaming with anticipation.
"I'm coming for you, cursed pyramid," the mage whispers. "I'm coming. And when I find you, you'll wish you'd never escaped."
