Another vision? Somnu wondered, watching the crimson mist form another mirrored image of himself.

  While he was naked again, the other Somnu was completely clothed. However, the clone’s white hair quickly grew to reach shoulder length, looking completely disheveled. The outfit wasn’t anything Somnu had worn before himself, it was simply some dark clothes with a tattered black cloak covering most of the body.

  “We meet again, my Somnu! Welcome to my home, my own Mind Palace!”

  “Seriously?” The scarecrow blinked his seeing eyes a few times, then narrowed them at his grinning clone. “You call me an unkillable cockroach when you don’t die even when I kill you?”

  “I didn’t expect you to eat my entire soul…” The grin began to fade slightly from the clone’s face. “You’re really something… pulling a scheme like that off with that grimoire Memento.”

  Distorted Fallacy! Somnu commanded the System to break out of the vision.

  He had no reason to stay when his enemy would likely fade away soon. Whatever he was experiencing, he couldn’t afford to waste time on it when Dreadbeasts were flocking towards him and Aurora in the meantime.

  Even if it renders him useless by using the skill one last time, they only needed to get to the nearest swamp to escape the Abyss of Lethe.

  With the last Dreadbeast defeated, he had once more overcome more active fears from this Layer. He hoped the System would allow him to leave, as there was no actual way for him to defeat all fears on this Layer, when only ones based on the sin of sloth and lethargy existed.

  However…

  … It didn’t work? Don’t tell me…! Somnu’s purple eyes widened. The System is not working in this space for some reason?!

  “Mine isn’t working either anymore.” John Doe spoke as he scratched the back of his head, using a deeper, hoarser version of Somnu’s voice. “I can manifest like this, but this isn’t enough… I really wanted to become you… The version of you that had it all. A parent, siblings, a girlfriend, a mentor, friends, a crush, a rival… A fulfilled being.”

  “...” Somnu closed and opened his flesh and blood fists a couple of times, keeping his eyes focused on his enemy.

  “It’s not fair… I worked hard, I did everything…” The tattered Somnu clone dug into his own hair and pulled on it, clearly able to claw out some of the white strands. “How could I lose?! I had more time to prepare, to get stronger…! All those souls, experience, power…! It’s not right!” With every word, the hoarse voice grew louder, rejecting the outcome.

  “Sometimes, it’s okay to cheat a little.” Somnu stretched his neck as he walked forward on the cold floor which almost seemed made of white unbreakable glass. The crimson mist formed a thin layer of liquid that continuously evaporated back into it or the countless red strings hanging upside down. “Besides, this isn’t over yet. We need to finish this.”

  “!”

  “I don’t have time to hold back though, I need to get through you and head back quickly.” Somnu lowered his knees into a fighting pose.

  “...Yes. Yes! You’re right!” The clone suddenly opened his eyes wide, straightening his back. The wide, nasty grin appeared on his face once more. “This is it! This is our awaited one-on-one! No helping hand, no cheats, no System!”

  “Good for you, buddy. Otherwise, I’d have already won this.” Somnu gestured with his hand. “I don’t care that you’re wearing my face. Actually, that might be better. I don’t want to hear your reasons, nor your excuses, come catch these hands. They’ve been waiting for the past nine years to get rid of you.”

  “With pleasure!”

  As he shouted, John Doe lunged forward at the fastest speed he could muster. However, without the System upgrades, they both were reduced to above average speed.

  Which Somnu was more than used to. After all, he had always been a good runner, not to mention chasing fast animals away on a daily basis would naturally increase one’s reflexes.

  “...”

  With his fully intact body, Somnu sidestepped the first punch aiming for his head, then went in for his own.

  “!”

  “Hahah!”

  However, his opponent quickly readjusted his failed punch into a spinning backfist headed right for Somnu’s face.

  “!”

  Somnu immediately redirected it, then dropped his upper body backwards, allowing his feet to kick his opponent in the head.

  Tanking the blow, John Doe put some distance between them.

  Somnu stood up, waiting.

  “Heh. Not bad!!” The clone simply licked the blood of his lips and stretched the limits of his mouth muscles to show the red teeth.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  How is he moving that fast? He shouldn’t be trained in any martial arts either, not having had a physical body… Somnu narrowed his eyes, readjusting his stance once more. “Don’t tell me you’ve absorbed the souls of the dead pawns? Is that why you fed them to me? So you can get stronger before the fight?”

  “Hahaha… maybe! Didn’t you say you didn’t want to know? But yet again, you were always too curious for your own good!”

  As the opponent leapt towards him once more, Somnu clenched his fists tight.

  He had no way of knowing how much time was passing while his mind was stuck in this place, but he somehow needed to beat an opponent with mastery over multiple martial arts fast. Fast enough that he still could get back to a live body.

  He only had one thing to his advantage now.

  That was…

  “Come on! Fight back!” The Blood Fiend cried out as he barraged Somnu with punches, outmaneuvering most of the attempts to block.

  Blow after blow hit him. In the face, chest, liver… Somnu gritted his teeth and continued to retreat slowly, keeping his enemy on his toes.

  With every blow turning his skin blue and purple, Somnu adapted, moved faster, eventually, the two were traveling through the edgeless, neverending void, locked in a deadly dance over identity.

  “Hahaha! Look! I am better after all! Give it up! Everything has led to this! I am better!” John Doe bellowed, his relentless charge never wavering. “I win this one-on-one… I will become the better Somnu…! I will…”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “?!”

  As his blows slowed, John Doe reached for his forehead and noticed the excessive amount of sweat dripping down his face and body.

  “Feeling tired?” Somnu asked while having stood for a moment to catch his breath.

  Then, he sharpened his gleaming purple eyes and lunged forward. This time, fully intent on ending it all.

  This time, finally, he would let his grudge properly feed.

  “Wait-”

  THUD!

  The first punch easily connected with the exhausted clone’s face. As he fell to the ground, Somnu jumped over him, nailing both arms to the ground with his knees.

  As the clone tried to raise his body, another punch hammered him into the wet glassy ground.

  Then another, and another.

  “You really are stupid. You’ve never had a physical body yourself, so you don’t know your limits. I don’t know how you possessed the human who killed my mother, but the rest had all been possessions with the System.”

  As he spoke, the scarecrow left no room for his opponent to respond, using the same velocity and rush his opponent had used moments earlier.

  “The System allowed you to regenerate consistently, so you almost never experienced the absolute limits of a body. You continued to rush in, expanding all that energy like an idiot. Whether you know the best martial arts or not, without actual experience, without even knowing your own limits, you’re nothing but a whiny monkey who only learned how to imitate others and complains when he doesn’t get his way!”

  “I am… Somnu… I… exist too…!”

  “And I don’t give a shit.”

  After having broken all the teeth in, Somnu grabbed the tongue and ripped it out with all the strength he could muster. Then he punched the throat before another sound could be released, reducing the murderer to a gagging mess.

  “Grg…! Ggru…!”

  “All of that was for my mother.”

  “...!”

  As the clone tried to kick Somnu from behind, still being held down, the scarecrow reached for the eye sockets and dug his fingers in. As he slowly moved them around inside, the clone squirmed with excruciating agony.

  Then, finally, he grabbed the eyeballs and gauged them out.

  “That was for Leyna.”

  Next, he effortlessly broke the clone’s nose, forcing the back of the skull to bash into the glassy ground again.

  “That was for Almon and Benji.”

  Then, with his bloodied nails, covered with the flesh of the murderer he had been hunting all this time, he continued to slash the entire body, ripping away the clothes along with the skin. Blood seeped out from all over as more wounds were viciously added and forcibly widened.

  “That was for all the countless souls you tortured, possessed, and devoured.”

  Quickly, the Blood Fiend was bleeding out. He simply laid there, as if his sense of touch had been completely stolen away from him too.

  Now, only one more remained.

  With the remaining strength he had available to him, Somnu shattered the eardrums, cutting off the vile creature from the world once more.

  For once again, John Doe was reaped of all his senses.

  “That was for Fala.”

  Somnu stated coldly, getting up from the unmoving body.

  Standing over a clone with his own face, housing the Blood Fiend himself, the scarecrow felt nothing.

  He raised his barefoot, brought it down and crushed the skull.

  “That was for me.”

  He narrowed his eyes slightly, then looked up. In this place, there was no sky to neither comfort nor acknowledge him.

  And yet, suddenly, all the blood that had seeped out came together and floated upwards, far beyond the reach of the red strings still hanging upside down.

  Then, the swirling currents of blood expanded and squirmed in a circular motion, before coming together in a pure crimson sphere.

  However, instead of the usual outline, the symbol of a dreadful melting face quickly imprinted itself by forming holes and lines in the new formation.

  The symbol of the Unseen Dreadbeast of Lethe.

  The symbol of the Sleepless Scarecrow.

  He had won.

  “!”

  As Somnu noticed it, his vision blurred and he found himself back in the Abyss of Lethe, staring up at the crimson moon, now fully outlining the infamous symbol of the grinning skull.

  A second later, his vision disappeared back into the void of his sightless eyes.

  “You’re finally back!”

  He heard Aurora’s voice from behind, but as he turned to check, he finally realized all his straw limbs were gone and Naga was nowhere to be found.

  “We’re surrounded by Dreadbeasts! Stay still!”