The Heartstone Journey

Book 3 | Ch. 7 - Only One Shall Live

Despite how much ground we were covering it felt like actual days since we left our resting site. The surrounding area was almost a copy paste of where we were originally, the only major difference being that the crystals around were slowly shifting color to blue.

"Maan~ it's so god damn boring!"

Nick shouted letting his voice out to stretch his vocal cords.

Royal reminded him sternly of what would happen if they let their guards down.

"Monsters could ambush us from any point so stop your whining and keep on moving."

"Yea-yea I get it already! But fuck man~! There really is nothing here!"

"Be thankful we haven't ran into anything just yet Nick. You're wrist is still healing and we are almost out of medical supplies as Hunter said before."

"Whatever~."

He commented now annoyed.

Just when Nick spoke about nothing happening the area began to shift and morph with the terrain changing greatly. It was nauseating to the eyes forcing us all except Hunter to shut away our vision behind a curtain. The sounds even warped and twisted making our bodies feel as if we to were twisting and turning. The next thing we all knew when we reopened our eyes were a completely different world in comparison to the dull and dangerous dimension we knew of. The sky we started growing accustomed to now was dark filled with starry nights with no sun to show off. The moon was a crescent with no signs of a full moon anywhere in sight. For the most part after that though everything was close to the same. Trees were withered and the soil was still mysterious as can be. Although there was now one thing that caught everyone's eye.

"Hey do you spot that out in the distance?"

Cloudy alerted the rest getting the first look.

"I see that as well. It's a silhouette but its difficult to tell who."

Royal commented.

Hunter did something outside of our expectations by walking toward the figure putting all of us on guard. We followed quickly not wanting to separate, it was worrying seeing how the area changed and now something appears after so long. The three of us put our hands to our weapons ready to draw in case of a sudden battle. Once close enough our jaws lowered slightly not understanding anything that was happening. Hunter seemed to not have noticed and walked straight by the figure paying no mind to it. But we couldn't stop feasting our eyes on who the person was. Hunter didn't even turn back to face us and only stood still after reaching a certain distance from us. It was like he was in a trance.

As soon as I blinked everyone vanished from my sight aside from the person standing before me. Nick, Cloudy, Hunter were gone. I shouted confused demanding to bring them back but the person didn't so much as react.

"This must be an illusion! There's no way that person is-!"

The figure standing before me was none other than... me. His- or should I say my hair was longer compared to the me speaking now. It was safer to say he was something like a past iteration of myself. I was on guard with my weapon now completely wrapped around my fingers, fixing the blades point at the me standing up ahead. Only after I pointed my weapon at him is when he reciprocated and copied me. It was clear he was no ordinary clone that mirrors movements, judging by the fact he only reacted after I did.

"You're in the way move aside."

The replica ordered with the exact tone and way I would speak, it was creepy to say the least.

"To be exact you're in my way. What did you do with the rest?"

The clone didn't reply this time only responding with his hand movements wielding a rapier the same as mine.