He was at Reckoning.
There was grass covering the ground, with a forest of tall evergreen trees visible in the distance. He could see a rocky hill far away, with a waterfall rushing from a weathered cliff. Just like everywhere on the Chained Isles, it was unclear where the water came from and where it went.
The Reckoning seemed like a beautiful and tranquil place. Idyllic, even.
Which had allowed Caster to get lost in his thoughts.
In the recent months, Caster had been wondering something.
Why does he wish to be a miracle, to be the saviour to others?
It was a condescending thought. Really.
But it was also true that he succeeded at that. At being a miracle. He saved around five times more people compared to Nephis in the novel.
At first, he just shrugged it off with the thought that it was for pragmatic reasons. People would obviously treat him better if he was a saviour, than not.
But just a little bit of thought made him realise that it wasn't true.
He had always just lost things in his life, so when it came to him that he has the power to not let others end up like him... to change their fate... he had no choice but to work towards it.
It was a self-fulfilling motivation.
Rather hypocritical too.
He was ready to do almost anything for his goal of surviving and returning to earth.
But he was ready to fight for other people? Be responsible for them?
How ridiculous.
'I'm a mess...'
Well, he should think about this later because right now, he has to fight an ascended devil.
It was very picturesque, however, he couldn't see or hear any living beings on the island. There was no sound other than the rustle of the wind, no movement other than the slow swaying of the trees. There were no beasts, no insects, no… anything.
Not a single Nightmare Creature could be seen wandering the expanse of the peaceful island.
Well, apart from the reflection, if we count it as a nightmare creature... which is wrong per se, but that's besides the point.
He's definitely defeated worse while being weaker, but that doesn't make this fight any less deadly. This might very well be harder than to fight than the terror, because of the insanely hard to fight nature of reflections.
These reflections of Mordret are too smart for their own good.
He has to fight his own self... or rather, a stronger version of his own self.
No matter what he did, he wouldn't be able to outdo the reflection physically.
But in a sense, he was the reflections worst nightmare... well apart from Sunny, who could easily use his flaw against the refelction.
The reason for this was that, while the creature is much stronger than Caster and can utilize every ability that Caster has at his disposal, it can't reflect both his echo, [Evermelt], and Caster.
That was set in stone, thematically, for the reflection.
Not to mention, Caster was confident that the Reflection would not be able to copy the full might of [Book of Books].
But this was just scratching the surface.
He has the [Nameless Sun], the memory he got from killing the fallen terror of the crimson spire. It was originally supposed to go to Nephis, but this time, Caster has it.
It is an ascended weapon of the sixth tier. Anything that the weapon touched was doomed to have its soul destroyed. It is a unique weapon-type memory that imbues other weapons, enhancing them, instead of manifesting as a weapon itself.
And Caster has near complete immunity to soul attacks, as proved during the fight against the crimson terror.
Memory: Nameless Sun
Memory Rank: Ascended.
Memory Tier: VI.
Memory Type: Weapon.
Memory Description: [For a long time, the Nameless Sun suffered in solitude, longing for all the things that were lost. Only when she lost that longing, too, was the Crimson Terror of the Forgotten Shore finally born.]
Memory Enchantments: [Solar Brand], [Soulflare], [Daybreak's End].
[Solar Brand]
Description: The Sun becomes one with the light. One can augment a weapon with the Nameless Sun.
[Soulflare]
Description: It emits a light. A light, whose meaning is to end, to rend. Anything the weapon touches is struck by the concept of absolute light. A flash so pure it burns through every soul it touches. The light forces its way through the souls, degrading them painfully.
[Daybreak's End]
Description: When fully awakened, the Nameless Sun manifests as a burning halo above its host weapon, illuminating the battlefield with pale daylight that devours shadow and soul alike. Within the light, all illusions, lies, and deceptions are incinerated, causes the battlefield to glimpse the nature of the world.
It was doubtful that the reflection would be able to reflect the fourth wall, after all, it didn't seem to have grasped Sunny's aspect legacy during the fight against him, and the fourth wall is too special to just be copied like that.
Well, Caster wasn't so sure if the reflection could reflect the aspect legacy too, he wasn't a machine after all. He forgot things as well.
But as long as the fourth wall doesn't fully manifest for it, using Nameless Sun would probably be the most effective way to kill it.
But, unfortunately, he couldn't just flaunt it either, and end up getting reflected.
Even without the soul attack being useful, the memory is too good. The augmentation is ridiculously potent.
So he needs to use it at the perfect moment. The memory would be too big of a threat with the reflection.
'I wonder how my flaw will affect it...'
It is the worst idea, for the reflection, to turn into Caster if the flaw affects it as badly as it affects Caster.
But, from the shadows, the reflection had chosen to appear in Caster's form.
'Oh boy, this feels weird.'
Caster had taken his stance, ready to lunge forward at the figure that looked exactly like him at any moment.
Suddenly, the figure disappeared from his sight and appeared in front of him, too fast for him to react, even with his traveller attribute that provided him insane battle reflexes.
It seemed like reflection had activated his aspect at full power, power that was fuelled by ascended essence. It was obviously faster than Caster's full speed, despite him being a titan.
The figure had not summoned, or reflected to be exact, any of his memories. It simply swung its hands at Caster's jaw. That was because Caster didn't have any memory summoned either, apart from the echo, [Evermelt].
The echo of golden liquid metal had not been covering his face due to it being uncomfortable for Caster, but in hindsight, he should have not hesitated with that.
It caused him to take a strong blow immediately.
A lightning induced punch to the jaw is not very pleasant to take.
As a sharp pain pierced his entire being, which abated almost instantly afterwards due to the fourth wall, he lunged forward, activated his hourglass charm and his aspect to escape from the reflection's immediate vicinity.
Of course, the reflected version of him did not just allow for that. It being faster than Caster made it especially hard for Caster to escape from it.
In the time the reflection reached Caster, the helmet was not even halfway done summoning.
It was just too fast.
Caster was not only much slower, which is his speciality, but he was also without a weapon. It took too long to create weapons with Evermelt.
He hadn't practiced too much with this, he had too much on his plate.
It was unfortunate but, his speed was being used against him.
But that's fine.
None of this was out of expectation for Caster.
He'd have been an idiot to not consider this before coming to fight this wicked creation of Mordret.
Caster was a speedster, and hence, he also knew what made a speedster weak.
It is relying too much of the unmatched speed.
He had learnt it the hard way over a year ago, when he fought against Nephis at the academy. Back then, the only thing he did was go really fast to try to dominate her.
It worked to an extent, afterall he was at an advantage for nearly the entirety of the fight.
But one mistake, one over shoot, was all it took to kill his momentum and shift the tides in her favour.
Being drunk off of speed is one of the biggest mistakes one can ever make.
Of course, this is not something that the reflection would understand without experiencing it himself.
Checking on his face, bloodied and burnt face, he realised that the hit he took was too devastating.
Lightning manifestation from his reflections speed made the attacks way worse, and way painful.
The reflection had obviously not just decided to give Caster time to prepare like that. It had leaned forward slightly, before shooting off at immense speeds, not giving Caster even time to think much.
Instinctively, his body moved out of the path that the reflection was bound to follow, using the time to finish forming his helmet and create a sword from evermelt's properties.
The reflection stopped in its tracks before it overshot and turned towards Caster at speeds that made no sense before getting on one leg, hopping from the ground slightly, and roundhouse kicking Caster in the jaws with lightning imbued legs.
Reacting, or more like predicting in time, Caster leaned backwards, almost as if he was about to roll backwards before jumping sideways, completely getting out of the trajectory of the kick.
He was still caught up in a explosive sparks that emanated the reflections body.
'What is he... Thor? Wait, that's my ability...'
Finally, evermelt was done creating the greatsword Caster wished to use.
As soon as he created it, the reflection turned from Caster... to Evermelt.
Before it turned into the pool of golden liquid, Caster had not noticed a single change occur in the reflection from the excessive usage of his aspect, granted it had the hourglass charm reflected as well. More than that, he didn't notice any hinderance in the reflections abilities due to the mental attack from Evermelt.
Caster deduced that it meant that fourth wall has been reflected as well. At least to an extent.
Which was not a good thing... as long as the reflection was reflecting Caster.
Instantly, a flurry of golden liquid emerged from the pool of golden liquid, engulfing the entire area with a sea of hot, purifying metal.
Enduring its chaos, Evermelt on Caster's body held on, though... it wasn't particularly tough on Evermelt. It was a transcendent devil for an echo after all.
Knowing this is a one time opportunity, Caster instantly summoned [Moon Sabers] and augmented them with the [Nameless Sun].
Instantly, the blade turned exceptionally sharp, exceptionally vibrant, exceptionally deadly.
The silver blade got a golden hue.
The hue of soul erosion.
The blade was now a soul destroyer.
Hurling one of the blades of the dual bladed memory towards the source of the golden wave, Caster took a step back.
The sword didn't even reach anywhere near it. The golden tide was too strong and too heavy to let it pass.
But even then, the devil definitely noticed it , perhaps even its soul demolishing properties were sensed, because soon after, Caster noticed that the reflection was now back to him.
The reflection was wearing [Ashveil Tunic], the memory he was wearing under [Evermelt], and was weilding [Moon Sabers] enhanced by the [Nameless Sun].
It was looking over at Caster with extreme disgust as it reactivated the reflected aspect and appeared behind Caster.
Caster knew that would happen, he wouldn't fall for the same thing twice, so he immediately used the Moon's hymn to push himself out of soul crushing strike.
'How should I stall this figh-'
Before he could finish that thought, though, he had to defend himself against a lightning-fast strike of the enemy's sword.
Caster deflected the fearsome attack and staggered back, his hands trembling from the force of the impact.
'Curses…'
A vicious smile appeared on the apparition's face.
As the abomination launched a flurry of lethal attacks his way, each swift and vicious, he struggled to defend himself and fought through the pain. He was barely holding on… for now, at least.
To create an opening, he decided to use his awakened ability, that had never appeared too useful.
'Graze! Graze!'
He activated his aspect ability, yet again, it failed to do what it was meant to. All it did was let out weak soul attacks.
They were just shrugged off by the reflection.
'The bastard has actually succeeded in reflecting the fourth wall... as bad as it is, it's a fine achievement, indeed.'
This didn't mean he'd go easy on it though.
The situation still did not look good, at all. Especially because blood was still streaming down Caster's torso, hidden by Evermelt, but noted by himself.
Between two strikes, he dashed back and pierced the apparition with a furious gaze.
Caster was unfortunately on the complete defence.
If he doesn't manage to get on the offence... this might very well end up as his last day in this world...