The Dawn of Dreams, The Dusk of Nightmares

"Come." I simply said to the ominous humanoid beast veiled in black fur before me and readied myself for battle. Determined to finish this once and for all.

It saw this, and immediately leapt at me, bringing its claws down on me as it flew through the air.

Seeing this, I quickly stepped sideways and dodged out of the way just in time. Large amounts of mana burst out of the claws as it ripped through the air where I once was, leaving Using this as a chance to strike, I readied a simple Lightning spell with my dominant hand, before launching it right at its exposed side.

The bolt of lightning hit home, striking right at its side, causing it to let out a yelp, and a flow of pain burst to the side of my belly simultaneously, As a result, I decided to take a few steps back, because as a spellcaster, I'll lose advantage if I keep engaging in battle with a warlock type magus like it, if I ever had any chance to win, it would be by creating range between us.

But it seemed to have read my mind, and turned to give me an upper cut with its claws, the dangerous trails of red extended towards me. Quickly thinking, I extended my hand and released a simple yet overwhelming burst of mana, the two forces clashed in mid air, creating an explosion just enough to give me inertia to open the distance.

Steadying my foothold, I made the conclusion that this range is enough for me to at most cast a normal spell.

Immediately, multiple magic circles appeared beside me in the air, all aiming towards the black beast.

Oh, I'm sorry? Did I say a spell? Well, this is my domain after all, despite my interference being weaker around this area because of the beast. I guess a little cheating still is possible.

But even so, the beast seemed to have ignored it all and started sprinting towards me, which means the spells would be even more likely to hit home, working in my favor. Thank goodness it's just a mindless beast, although I couldn't help but feel embarrassed by the fact, considering...

That beast is also a side of me.

With a wave of my arm, arrows made from lightning emerged from the center of the magic circles and was launched at the beast.

But to my surprise, the beast promptly avoided all the arrows, dodging left and right, sometimes even bouncing off the stems of the trees, causing it all to sink into the floor, without a single one hitting home while greatly shortening the distance between us.

It was at that moment that I realized I messed up big time, the beast wasn't mindless, no. It was confident that it was able to dodge it all despite the vast number of the arrows. I've severely underestimated him. But it was all too late, and all I could do is to do my best to minimize the incoming damage.

It got in range and pounced on me, gaping its jaws wide open, exposing the razor sharp teeth hidden within. Making the judgement that I wouldn't be able to dodge it, I extended my arm and made a last resort, quickly forming a magic circle consisting of groups of smaller circles. Clenching my fist as fast as possible, I released it all. And mini bolts of lightning burst forth from the circles, flying straight at the impending beast.

I was half-expecting for it to miraculously dodge like it did with the arrows, but to my surprise, it didn't saw it coming and wasn't able to stop in time, causing them all to tear into its flesh, burying deep into its body.

"Ngh, Gahhh!" I screamed at the same time as it howled in pain, as patches of black charred marks appeared all across my body, corresponding to where the beast was hit. But thankfully, the exploding pain quickly became dull enough for me to ignore as the electricity soothed my nerves.

'Yes! It worked!' I thought to myself. After all, I already was aware of the damage being reflected on to me from our fights before, so of course I won't come fighting empty-handed. With minor modification of the spells, it's enough to nullify my nerves by just enough margin for me to continue fighting.

To be completely honest, I am supposed to be able to nullify the pain with my control over this place, but I was refused from doing so by none other than the owner of this piece of land, so I had to find ways to bypass the restrictions, and this is the result I came up with. It might not be effective, but at least it worked.

Looking up at the beast, I can see that it was severely wounded, with bloody holes all around its body shrouded in surprisingly beautiful jet-black fur.

'Is this weak enough?' I thought as I raised my hand before the beast could reassess itself to attack me, and imagined for mana to materialize into chains to tie its limbs, they obeyed my command and did so, tying it on to the floor.

The beast saw this and began struggling, yet even though so severely wounded, it easily shattered the chains, not even giving me a chance to take a breather.

It raised it's right arm and crimson particles emitted from the tip of its claws, before swiftly bringing it down on me. Thankfully I saw this coming and strafed left, watching as the scarlet lightning burst forth from the claws, this time cracking the ground, devastating the entire piece of land while launching the snow on the floor back into the air.

Seizing the opportunity, I held my hand up high and formed another magic circle, this time a little more complicated...

That was when I noticed something at the corner of my eye. Turning my pupils at that direction, I realized that I had once again made a mistake, a grave mistake.

The beast had dug it's extended hand into the patches of snow and used it as a build up to do an upper cut on me.

This time, I wasn't able to do anything. I helplessly watched as the claws left the ground before accelerating to deathly velocity coming straight for me. It tore through me straight in the chest, thrashing through my ribcages, and launched me off the ground from the impact alone.

I felt as my helpless body soared through the air, before hitting the floor with my side before laying flat on the floor with a horrifying claw wound across my chest while coughing up blood.

But thankfully, the beast didn't give chase. Or should I say, it couldn't give chase.

I turned my head at the beast, and smiled as it did a weird pose, also with a thrashing wound on its chest while blood poured out of its mouth.

Ah, I didn't think I had to go for plan B instead, guess plans never was able to keep up with events. Ahhh, but it hurts, I want to heal this up so badly with my dream power but I can't, because if I do, it would heal for the wolf as well.

So instead, I mustered up the best I could and once again held my hand at the beast.

'This is it!!!' I thought I activated another spell with a clench of my hand, once again, chains shot out from the ground and tied the beast down.

The beast knew it wouldn't be able to escape this time, running a few steps towards me in hopes of stopping me, before being held back by the chains. It continued to struggle and tried to bring itself forward as much as possible, causing its torso to be extended forward as its hands and legs were held back.

Not satisfied with the binds, I formed another couple of circles just in case and more chains wrapped around its body. Finally deciding that this should be enough, I closed my eyes and imagined myself never hurt in the first place.

Immediately, all the pain was gone, and I could hear the chains clanging together with each other as the black wolf struggled, but to no avail.

I silently walked forward as it continues to sneer and growl at me. Only stopping when I'm just a few steps away from it.

"...give up, I won't kill you. It's my victory."

The beast's iris changed, and a glimpse of something flashed within it for a second. Seeing this, I let down my guard and was about to unlock the chains, thinking that perhaps I finally succeeded this time.

But instead, something else took over, and instead of the pure anger within those pupils, it because a golden mirror that reflects everything, as if it had lost all emotions.

At the same time, the taiga forest around me began to dissipate, I watched as the trees around us silently faded into ashes, the thin black fog surrounding the snowy terrain dissipate, revealing the thick blanket of snow covering all across the forest floor all this while.

I looked back at the beast and wondered what is this for, until I realized that it wasn't surrendering.

No, what it was doing, was refunding all mana from around the area, as giants amount of mana was gathered within its abdomen, it began taking a deep breath.

I quickly put up my guards and leapt backwards, unsure of what it might do, I reinforced the chains, but as soon as I look at its eyes, I understood.

Because I can tell, there wasn't any hostility within this action, it's simply a trial, a wish, a last stand before surrendering. It was simply a request, a request for me to prove myself.

If that is the case, then very well. I've been dealing with you for such a long time now, so why don't we finish this on a grand finale? I'll keep you accompanied, one last time, old friend.

Then, let me return your favor with all I had.

I held my right hand up and immediately, immense streams of mana burst out of them, giving form to a large and intricate magic circle, if this were out there in the physical world, I'd definitely not be able to do this with my mana output of a novice mage, but with my great manipulation over mana, it's possible here for me where I had almost infinite mana, not to mention that with the forest gone, my control over the area has returned, which grants me further control over the spell.

Thinking this, I added more magic circles and layered it upon the already formed magic circle, further increasing the power of the spell. Satisfied with it, I clenched my hands into a fist, and the magic circles crashed into each other before shattering, reforming into a giant orb of pure white energy. Lightnings sparked from the orb and danced around the swirling air. The sheer density of the mana manifested into energy can be felt leaking into the surroundings as it covered the sky above.

Almost immediately, the beast let out a devastating howl, it took the form of a beam, the ground around it shattered at the sheer vibration of the howl unleashed from its mouth, coming straight for me as the earth beneath it was ripped apart by the mana amplified howl.

Seeing this, I smiled. It wasn't exactly a happy smile, no. On the contrary, it might as well be considered a crazy smile, it was a crazed smile of sheer joyfulness, the joy of being able to fight with all I had without any restrictions.

"See you then, my rival, my other half." With that said, I brought the spell down and unleashed it. As soon as it touched the ground, it exploded. Immediately, silence took over everything, and the world faded into white light.

Ah, oops. I got caught within the explosion as well. Gotta remember to keep a longer distance next time.

Well, at least I won't die and the pain nullification is back anyway, so I'm invincible right now. So thank goodness our beast friend lifted the restrictions earlier or I'm dead.

Ah, speaking of which, I should really get out of here so I can watch the explosion from afar.

A few minutes later, the explosion finally ended and the dusts settled. I returned to the epicenter only to find a large white ball with around 2.5 meters in diameter just sitting there.

"Huh? That's... not exactly what I expected." I mumbled as I approached it to investigate. To be completely honest, I had various possible scenarios that will happen after I defeated the beast in my mind... but definitely not this.

Walking up it to it, I touched it after hesitating for a while. As soon as I did, it broke where my palm made contact with it and black liquids began oozing out of the leakage while the hole expanded.

Eww, it's kind of gross, but the liquid doesn't seem to stick on to my body nor my clothes, so I decided to might as well just accelerate the process and rip the entire epidermis of the egg-thingy apart, yet as soon as I do so, a body fell from within the egg, but I quickly caught it before it could fall to the ground.

Holding it in my arms while it leaned against my shoulder, I looked over to my shoulder only to had my eyes wide open, because it is a person, and not just any person, it was... me.

It was an exact replica of me, with the only difference between me and him being that I had brown hair while he had jet black hair. But other than that, it's absolutely me.

Seriously, what in the world is going on?

Just then, he opened his eyes, and instead of my usual brown eyes, he had bright yellow eyes, which makes it two difference between us now.

He continued to look around for a while, his eyes wandering all over the place, until finally, he looked at me and our eyes locked on to each other. And at that moment, I felt as if something between us was established.

The next second, we grinned at each other.

"Congratulations on passing the alpha test, me." Were the words that first came out of his mouth.

I couldn't help but have a smirk crawl on to my face at this situation.

Ah, yes. To think this all began two months ago.