A white expanse.

  Shining marble rock as far as my eyes could see, which was quite far indeed.

  Cracks spread out across the ground, forming wild geometric shapes.

  And above, a clear white sky, pure and untainted.

  The view was so white, that it was nearly impossible to tell where the horizon lay.

  A total contrast to the black Sea I grew accustomed to seeing in my dreams.

  My eyes struggled to adjust. The world was so bright it felt hollow, as if light itself forgot how to cast shadows.

  For a moment, my mind snapped back to when I was in the Sea before. Falling through the abyss, my mana explosion inverting my projected world in the instant before the Sea reached out to claim me.

  ~Ah, yes. The abyss.

  Even here it found me. Even here it bled through.

  The abyss—my own creation, my own escape—had carved itself into this place.

  Far to my left, a streak of black lay across the earth. The distance was quite large, perhaps a few thousand meters at most.

  To my right—

  ~To my right…

  A figure stood in the distance. Black flames flaring up from his body. Legs with hooves like a goat, a head of a dragon, the mane of a lion, and the jagged claws you would often see demons have.

  At first, he appeared to be confused. His head slowly turned back and forth, to and fro, as if surveying the area. But then he looked in my direction, those red eyes of his gleaming brightly with malice.

  A gruesome roar echoed out. He began to run in my direction. The distance between us began to close at a frightening speed.

  I took a step back without meaning to. My body reacted before my mind did.

  His silhouette flickered between black and white like a broken neon sign. It reminded me of visual glitches you’d see in old indie games.

  The air trembled. Did air exist in my dreamscape? Ah— Perhaps it would be more accurate to say mana vibrated.

  “LOOK AT ME…” The figure screeched with a familiar tone.

  I immediately recognized the voice, despite the natural distortion. It was the other me.

  This realization came to me in a rush, just as the doppelganger threw the first punch.

  I instinctively dodged it.

  It was fast, but not quite fast enough.

  ~How strange.

  I began to think to myself, as I continued to weave and dodge his repetitive assault.

  ~Before. My mana state in the real world would be reflected here yet…

  A single parry. A grapple. A toss.

  Using a counterstrike martial art technique well known on Earth, I threw the other me’s mutant body over my should and slammed it into the ground.

  ~Despite using up so much mana in our last round, my body still feels fine here.

  The doppelganger twisted his body unnaturally, spinning like a glitching marionette.

  I threw up my arms to block his kick, yet still I was knocked aside.

  My body barrel-rolled across the ground. Somehow, I found myself planting my feet into the ground and twisting my body into an upright position.

  ~Was my exhaustion only physical? Or was it all in my head?

  A burning sensation.

  I glanced at my arm.

  Black flames burned, scorching me, eating me— like a curse.

  I took in a deep breath.

  ~Water.

  Water expelled out from my shoulder, wrapping around the flames.

  ~Light.

  The water began to shine like gold.

  Yet the flames ate away at the golden liquid.

  Turns out it was less of a curse, and more like the Void.

  I let out a sigh and looked at the doppelganger.

  He simply stood there, looking at me with what I could only assume was a blank stare.

  It was as if he momentarily forgot why he attacked me.

  I narrowed my eyes, glancing once more at my arm.

  The burning crawled up my shoulder. I didn’t have time to hesitate.

  ~Guess there’s only one thing left to do.

  Closing my eyes and biting my lip, I raised my hand…

  And chopped off my arm.

  ~Time. Rewind. Target: Arm.

  The incantation whizzed through my mind like lightning. In a mere instant, my arm regrew.

  Warmth flooded down my shoulder as bone and flesh rewove themselves.

  Seconds after, I formed a flame in my hand, orange and ordinary.

  I looked to the other me again.

  He looked back, his red eyes shining brightly in the distance as if seeing me stirred something inside him.

  The doppel began his sprint, and I immediately threw the fireball at him.

  It expanded rapidly as it zipped across the rocky plain like a streak of orange paint.

  BSST–!

  The flame made direct contact and mana erupted upwards in a fiery inferno.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Yet his figure emerged appearing unscatched as he continued his advance.

  ~No effect?

  The approaching demon growled heavily.

  ~Wait no…

  I narrowed my eyes. His figure was flickering even more now. It was barely noticeable, but my attack definitely dealt damage.

  But the other me was on me in an instant. He raised his claw and sliced at me, moving so fast that black lightning streaked from his claws.

  I scarcely dodged this, flipping backwards in a reverse somersault and landing on my feet a few meters away.

  He inhaled sharply, and the flames around him surged.

  He let out another screech. Flames erupted from his body, expelling small meteors that zipped towards me like lightning bolts.

  I skated to the side, launching my own bolts to counter.

  Another rush, he slung his claws at me again.

  I crossed my arms to block.

  My arms get sliced off and I roll to the side as they regenerate.

  I stood to my feet.

  ~This isn’t going anywhere.

  Flames rained down on me like an angry storm.

  I put up a mana barrier, shielding me from the barrage. But the magic bullets kept coming, pelting my shield as it began to crack under the pressure.

  “Rewind.”

  I cast my rewind spell on the barrier, instantly fixing it.

  Rewind. A simple spell—at least in theory.

  Reversing time for a single object was easy. Reversing it for a construct took effort. Reversing it for an entire area required absurd amounts of mana.

  But the main requirement for the spell is that I needed to remember the state in which I wished to return the target to.

  But as it took large amounts of mana, it was overall inefficient. On top of that, I couldn’t just keep defending forever…

  ~Remember…

  That’s when it hit me.

  If I could rewind things to a state in which I remember. Could I not recreate objects and places from memory?

  In fact, I’m sure my others, including this doppelganger, mentioned something like this before…

  “As we may have already realized, we are able to wield and recreate anything within our memories. But there is more to it than that.”

  The librarian repeated within my memories.

  “We are also able to build from those memories to create the nonexistent and cause the impossible.”

  I took a deep breath.

  The barrier shattered before me and slowly the flame pellets flew towards me.

  I held out my hand, my fingers outstretched towards the firestorm before me.

  I spoke.

  A simple incantation.

  A new incantation.

  Yet it felt like I’ve spoken the words a thousand times.

  “Memory Realize…”

  I could feel my mana surging, my mind flipping through all of my memories.

  A book I once read. A green scenery. A forest of trees. Overgrown roots. The abundance of life and mother nature.

  “Forest.”

  The air thickened with the scent of earth and leaves.

  The ground rumbled and groaned, as if something ancient stirred beneath it.

  From it, the geometric shapes ruptured and massive, thick bark grew and blocked the oncoming flames.

  The bark ruptured, but the damage was cleanly averted.

  The roots continued to grow outward, thick trees sprouted upwards, leaves covered the sky.

  I ran along the growing roots as the doppelganger raged ahead, slapping trees aside as he attempted to reach me.

  One leap.

  A swipe of my arm.

  A massive branch jutting out to pierce my foe.

  Latching onto another as the ever-growing bark dragged me along.

  Yet still, the other me kept chase. The forest growing against him did slow him down.

  Every time he was stabbed by branches his flames burst outwards and sought me out like missiles.

  Trees sprouted to block their path and I countered the stragglers.

  I looked forward.

  I was almost near the abyss.

  ~There.

  I surfed the growing bark as it lead me to the chasm. It bridged the two sides together with a single massive root.

  I looked back upon the shadowy, flickering image of the other me.

  The world began warping around his claws as he raised them.

  “REND.”

  It was the first word the doppelganger spoke since our fight within the dreamscape began. He ripped a hole in space, completely erasing the center of the root as inertia pulled me over the abyss.

  The shadow screamed and mutated into that dragonic mass of limbs from our second round. Immediately, he flew towards my airborne body with his jaws open.

  I smiled.

  “It was a bit of a gamble.” I muttered.

  ~Time. Rewind. Target: Self.

  I appeared behind him, my feet firmly planted on a large root.

  “Memory Realize: Geyser.”

  Water erupted at my feet, propelling me towards the beast as it turned to look at me with immense visible anger.

  With a swift chop, I sent the other me flying away from the abyss.

  His body slammed into the ground, breaking apart rock as he rolled far away from the chasm.

  I raised my hand, already conjuring up a massive boulder above me.

  “Meteor.”

  Heat washed over me as the boulder ignited in white flame.

  With a simple gesture of my arm, it began its rapid descent towards the doppelganger.

  Though his body did not move. He simply stared at me with his crimson glare up until he vanished from sight beneath the rock’s image.

  BSST—!!!

  White smoke rose.

  I warped into the sky above an impact crater with a radius of about two thousand meters, staring down to see what was left.

  Yet still a black figure was revealed as the smoke began to dissipate. His flames continued to dance wildly, and his silhouette flickered rapidly.

  He roared once more, erupting with magical energy and flame alike.

  ~Of course he survived.

  Black flame and ash flew up at me like consecutive volcanic eruptions.

  I let out a sigh and raised up my hand once more.

  Water began gathering at my fingertips. More and more, expanding exponentially.

  In my mind, I would recall a beautiful massive lake in the suburbs. The massive dams that humans made to make such grand bodies of water possible. The way clean water would sparkle in ponds in drawing.

  Soon a bubble twice the size of the crater had formed in my palm, its water sparkling, clear, and reflective.

  “Time to go to sleep.” I murmured.

  But the figure below me could not hear me. It was clear from his blind rage that there was no way he could understand the words I was speaking.

  And so, I began my incantation with my eyes shut.

  “Memory Realize…”

  My eyes snapped open as I slammed my hand downwards, mentally pushing the water down.

  “Man-made Lake!”

  The water rushed down around me, like I was sitting underneath a waterfall.

  The view below quickly vanished.

  I couldn’t see anything, not even my own reflection.

  I let out a sigh and closed my eyes once more.

  ~It’s finally over…

  I was sure of it. So much so that I found myself drifting.

  When I awoke, I found myself lying down in a patch of grass.

  As I sat up and looked around, a beautiful massive lake sat before me, sparkling. A massive forest surrounded me, trees going as far as I could see, even reaching the chasm in the distance, yet not stretching beyond it.

  Lush greenery like grass and moss had grown in abundance, likely due to the added water.

  And the trail in which the doppelganger rolled across the land was now a peaceful little river.

  I blinked.

  At first, I could not believe my eyes.

  A battle of life or death just took place here, after all.

  Not to mention—

  “This is the most beautiful dream I’ve seen yet.”

  For the first time since the morning began, I felt my body relax.

  And with a smile, I laid back down as familiar voices began to fill my hear.

  “Yoiya.”

  “Yoiya.”

  “...Yoiya.”