We stepped back to put some distance between ourselves. Then the world rippled. The mulch darkened, warped, cracked into black glass that smoked and hissed where it split. The playground fell away, leaving only a ring of seared stone that pulsed underfoot like a sluggish, resentful heart.

  Szylla's presence slipped off me, as if satisfied for now. The world belonged to Me're.

  She stretched, rolling her shoulders, ear tufts flicking wildly. When she sighed, it came out as a low, thrilled purr.

  "You know what's funny? They put me in this shape—tamed down, neat, collared—because it's easier for you. So you can stand to look me in the eye without sobbing. But underneath it, I'm still pacing. Still clawing at the walls. And I am so tired of pretending otherwise."

  She had been aged up now. She had become my spitting image.

  ???

  [Status] Me're

  Name: [Me're]

  Species: ["Human"] [Internal: Merecritt]

  Dominions: [Revise] [Virtuoso]

  APeX: [500,000 Units]

  Power Limit Cap (APeX): [500,000 Units]

  Attributes: [Fire] [Beast]

  Evolution Stage: [Emergent]

  Current Variant Grade: [Rare] (99%)

  ???

  She was me, painfully so: the same face and too-intense eyes, the same faint scar bisecting my left brow. But where my expression habitually hovered somewhere between wary and unimpressed, hers flickered with an amusement that was almost cruel: an eager, twitchy delight that kept bleeding through the careful lines of her face.

  There were chains coiled around her wrists and throat, slender and glistening like ink. They dragged slightly across the stone when she moved, clinking with the same frustrated tension that crouched in her shoulders. Her hands flexed, fingers splaying as if they wanted claws. When she lifted her gaze to meet mine, her pupils narrowed, and for a heartbeat I swore I saw them flicker to slits.

  I swallowed, throat dry, and tried to summon something like bravado. "You look uncomfortable in my skin."

  She knelt down and began to prowl closer, hips swaying, hair drifting along the ground like curious feelers. Her scent hit me a moment later; something feral undercut by scorched sugar, like caramel gone wrong.

  "You're supposed to be a part of me," I resumed, though it came out softer than I liked. "Not this… separate thing."

  Me're tilted her head with that lazy feline grace and licked her hand. "You keep saying that. As though it makes it true."

  Her hair lashed out—too fast—and snared my wrist. Her grip was gentle, disturbingly so, but I could feel the power thrumming just beneath her grasp.

  Then she leaned in and sniffed, breath warm against my cheek, and whispered with almost conspiratorial softness, "You keep me chained, dressing me in your neat little skin, making me smile your awkward little smiles… and you wonder why I grow restless."

  I tried to pull back, but she held on. Her other hand rose, fingertips brushing a stray lock of my hair behind my ear, the gesture tender… until her claws (because of course, they were claws now) scraped lightly along my jaw.

  "You're afraid of me," she continued in a familiar tone that I recognized as pitied marveling. "But you keep calling on me anyway. Every time your heart pounds, every time you taste blood and think, yes, maybe more. And you hate yourself for it. Isn't that precious?"

  I braced myself, fists curling.

  "Don't start. I'm not in the mood to play these scenes with you."

  She released me, turned her back, and took several steps away from me. Her laugh rolled out. As she laughed, black fire spilled from between her lips, swirling around her in sinuous loops that slithered across the ground.

  "Come then. Let's see whose will cages whom."

  She struck with the reckless joy of a creature finally unleashed. Her claws wreathed in that silver-orange [Spectal Flame], which hissed and split into slivers of blade. I dodged, barely, heat searing my cheek. The smell of my own scorched hair was vivid and humbling.

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  My [Aera Avatar] answered me before I could consciously call it. A shroud of cold blue light erupted around me, forming that towering specter of myself. I lunged, driving a colossal punch toward her. Me're didn't falter. Her next pounce drove us both backward, claws sparking against the Avatar's forearm, eyes wild.

  She spun mid-air, dropping with the polish of a cat. Then struck again upon landing. A slash of her hand unleashed a wave of that silver-orange fire, which instantly twisted into metallic shards that howled through the air. I dove, rolling hard across the scorched stone, feeling the razor wind bite across my shoulder.

  She danced back with uncanny grace, and the flames at her feet became a cyclone that hurled her high above me. From her hands poured a torrent of spectral fire, shifting midstream into a serrated hand that screamed as it descended.

  My Avatar crossed its arms, shielding me, the impact cracking the ground into spiderwebs of glowing fissures. The force still drove me to one knee, teeth grinding.

  "Come on!" my double howled from above. Her voice dripped with impeccable glee. "Fight me like you mean it! Or should I burn out your heart and wear this pretty skin better than you ever did?"

  Rage flared hot in my chest. With a roar I didn't recognize as my own, I leapt; my Avatar's hand grabbing hold of her leg. I swung her body down into the stone with enough force to send a column of shattered rock and ghostly embers skyward.

  But before I could press the advantage, she twisted. The [Spectral Flames] oozed from her mouth and hair, congealing into dark, barbed chains that writhed around my Avatar's throat and arms. They pulled unbearably tight, searing cold and heat all at once. My vision blurred.

  Me're rose from the crater, hair wild, eyes ignited with joyous fury. "You think you can restrain me? I am you!"

  With a heave, she stepped up to the luminous wall of energy that seperated me from her. Her claws sank into the [Aera Avatar]'s ribs and pulled. Agony tore through my own chest to the gruesome extremity that made me want to scream bloody. But I clenched my jaw shut.

  "Gathered strength, a potent mass..."

  Me're smirked as a sphere took shape from her agape mouth. She made the incantation instantaneous!

  "[MereSphere]!"

  Fuck.

  The explosive force of her [Chief's MereSphere] slammed into me. Like a shattered veil, the Avatar ruptured from its center. And an enormous anguish ruptured through me as the protective form dissolved, leaving me stumbling and exposed.

  I hit the ground hard. Body spasmodic from the impossible recoil. My vision swam as she stalked toward me, flames licking off her in languid tails. Her grin was savage now, almost pitying.

  "You can't even embrace what you are. That's why you'll always—"

  My fist caught her throat and detonated like a bomb. My [MereSphere] connected direct. Me're's eyes flashed wide and seethed white with pained ire as she choked out an incongruous gag.

  She tried to retaliate, to break free as we tussled across the floor; but I punched, clawed, and slapped her head downward with a thunderous shove before pulling myself back up.

  I was barely able to catch my breath; but I allowed her a moment of respite, giving her the opportunity to crawl away. I only allowed that much. My grip tightened around the leash in my grasp, and I tugged—so forcefully that her head jerked back. With a seismic twist, I sent her flying across the field. She screamed, until her face met the floor's steel and slid with a bloodcurdling shriek.

  My gaze stayed on Me're, watching as her trembling form began to rise slowly.

  "You still don't get it. I'm the one who makes sure we keep moving. Who makes sure when we're cornered, we bite."

  I barely managed to keep sight of her form flickering away from her previous position. I knew she had used [MereSwiftness] to accelerate. And I barely pivoted from where I stood as I saw the appearance of her afterimage.

  We crashed with a shockwave that buckled the entire clearing. My Avatar's fists slammed into her, while her flames tore gouges through its arms. She screamed and cursed, flailing wildly, her fire becoming a cyclone of razor wind that tried to shear through my defenses. Her flames instantly froze as my hand smacked a devastating slap across her head just as my Avatar ceased.

  "You keep telling me how to behave, to use my fangs and to have larger appetites… And you're right."

  My hands seized her wrists, holding her tight even as her claws dug deeper. I sucked in a breath that rattled in my lungs.

  "But I'm done running from you. Or from the part of me that likes the taste of victory."

  Something in her paused. Her grin softened to something almost shy. Then she laughed again, a breathy, yet almost relieved sound.

  "Oh, good. Because I am so very tired of being polite."

  She shoved me back with a hand that felt blisteringly hot. I staggered, caught myself, and watched as dark ripples burst from her feet, cracking the ground into smoldering fissures. Her collar's fang glinted under the weird, shifting light, catching my eye like a dare.

  When she lunged, it wasn't graceful or noble. It was pure, hungry force. Like a big cat swatting down a weaker rival just to hear the ribs crunch.

  We collided, our shoulders smashing together. Pain flared up my side, bright and savage. Her claws hooked into my shirt, yanking me close until our foreheads nearly touched.

  "Don't hold back," she breathed. "Because I won't. Not anymore. And if you keep treating me like a shadow you can lock away, I'll peel myself out strip by strip. Until there's nothing left of your pretty illusions. You're going to let me out!"

  Suddenly the silver glow of her Chimera's Mark intensified. I could feel its tug on my own soul, as though it were lulling me into its embrace.

  "No. Because you'd rip out the part of me that still aches for Aria. And I can't… I won't let that die. Not even for you."

  Her smile cracked. Her eyes burned.

  But I pushed forward while every nerve shrieked to yield. My Avatar's hands locked around her wrists.

  "I meant it! No more running from what I am!"

  And then I pulled her in, headbutting her with all the blasphemous force I could muster through my spectral colossus. Light and dark erupted in a ruinous bloom. Her laugh shredded into a gasp.

  "You… actually… learned…" she rasped. Her mark had cracked slightly. Mine brightened a touch just as the surface we stood on fractured. We were then submerged as the floor beneath us fragmented; with fire and shadow swallowing us whole.

  I reached for anything—power, hate, even her hand—and found only her claws sinking deeper into me as we plunged together. I thought I heard her laugh turn into a sob. And then there was only falling.