Blade Over Magic

He and ’He’

Xander opened his eyes and sat up.

His gaze was blank for a few seconds, then he slowly looked around, taking in his surroundings.

Unlike the last time this happened, Xander didn’t find himself in a dreary environment filled with dead swords. Instead, he could feel soft grass beneath him, and around him, flowers stretched in every direction as far as the eyes could see.

The flowers weren’t small either. The smallest one he could see was half his height, and in the center was a sword poking out hilt first.

It was surprisingly idyllic.

Without needing to hurt his brain to think about it, Xander already knew where this place was. It was his psyche, but also his mana pool. Similar to how Aubrey could send her consciousness into her library.

The source of the Swords of Myriad Paths. The Garden of Myriad Paths.

After regarding the place for a moment, Xander slowly turned around and saw... ’himself’.

Xander looked at ’Xander’, the latter staring at him with a somewhat unimpressed expression, sitting on the petal of one flower.

Xander tilted his head and asked calmly.

"You can still appear in a place like this?" To that, ’Xander’ scoffed.

"Just because you made this place pretty doesn’t mean your doubts will miraculously vanish." He retorted, and Xander just shrugged.

Seeing him stay silent, ’Xander’ continued.

"I have to say... you are a selfish bastard." ’His’ eyes narrowed as he glared at Xander.

"You were the first one to clock the abnormality with the ants. You were one of the ones to guess at the presence of the traitors. You singlehandedly managed to push Landor away from certain destruction. You did all of this, helped Aubrey and Curtis create their mana constructs, and the list goes on. You did all of this... only to almost throw it away because you wanted to have fun? Wanted to have a ’proper’ swordfight?" ’He’ tapped his temple in a mocking manner

"One seriously needs to ask if you are alright in the head, because I don’t think you fully understand just how insane that is. Aubrey and the others fought with all they had just to ensure that they could get enough information to give you so that you could finish the job, and the Captain DID die. You almost desecrated his sacrifice to satisfy your own selfishness." Xander didn’t interrupt as he simply stared at ’him’ calmly. And the latter absolutely continued.

"And I know you know you could have finished the ant multiple times too. The first hit you landed, you could have used a spatial slash to slice the ant in half. Heck, not just then, but every exchange where you managed to land clean hits. When you broke the ant’s jaw, you could have used Rupture Thrust instead of Boulder Strike. I’m fairly confident that would have turned its brain into mush. When you sliced its wings off, you could have gone for its neck. You literally had more opportunities to kill it throughout the entire fight than it had proper hits on you." ’His’ lip curled disdainfully.

"But you didn’t do any of that. No. Instead, you actively made it more dangerous. You made it stronger and more skilled. What would have happened if... say Curtis saw when you were on the backfoot and tried to help? After all, all he suffered was backlash from using his magic too much. He could have totally entered his wolf form and jumped in to assist you. What would you have done if the ant put a hole through his head, hm?" ’He’ looked around and scoffed.

"You resolved your trauma, but so what? If your friends died and their sacrifices were for naught, is that truly the path you want to follow? One where you simply use the efforts of others to advance your craft? What makes you any different from those cliché ass villains we used to see on TV back on earth? The ones who are willing to do anything to further their goals?" ’He’ finally stood, walking until ’he’ was right in Xander’s face.

"Or did you perhaps believe that if anything went wrong, Mia or Xavier would step in? Maybe Mary or Keir would come from wherever they are to help? You know, some Deus Ex Machina coming to save your ass? You cannot possibly be that delusional." ’He’ paused, then laughed, but it wasn’t amused.

"What am I saying? You ARE that delusional. After all, you literally allowed an entity whose whole skillset revolves around adapting to do just that. And you have the audacity to think ’This is nice’. God you are SO frustrating! And that’s not even taking into consideration how the others will react after they learn of what happened." ’He’ started walking around Xander, looking him up and down like his was something dirty.

"You definitely noticed the recording device. Sure, uninformed people may think you simply fought and won. But the others? Especially Aubrey? She’s gonna know damn well what you did. Do you think they will just give you a free pass? That they’ll just say ’it is what it is’ and move on? I want you to think for a moment and just consider what would have happened if you failed." ’He’ huffed and pointed in a direction. There wasn’t anything there, but he seemed to be indicating Landor.

"You would have pointlessly lost your life, then that ant would have gone in and killed every soldier in Landor. Then chances are that it would find the refugees and kill them too. The elderly, the women, and the children. You ran the risk of allowing a slaughter to occur because you don’t know how to think like a normal, functioning human being. And now you just stand there calmly." Unlike the last time where the words were filled with mockery. This time, the anger and indignation in them was clear as day.

When ’he’ finally fell silent, Xander closed his eyes and took a breath. Then he stared at ’him’ and said with a bit of a wry smile.

"Yeah, you’re right." ’He’ froze.

"... Huh?" Xander shrugged.

"You’re right. And I’m not gonna gonna pretend otherwise. I didn’t just gamble with my life. I gambled with the lives of everyone I was supposed to be protecting, and that’s entirely on me. If I failed, the sacrifice of the Captain and the others would have been for nothing, and it would be my fault. I portrayed myself as this calm, methodical, systems thinker for so long, only for me to nearly let everything collapse because I found the demonic equivalent of a good sparring partner. So yeah, everything you said was true. I’m selfish as shit." ’He’ was stunned, but Xander continued.

"I do disagree with one thing, though." That bit of disagreement seemed to snap ’him’ out of his shock, and scoffed.

"And what’s that?" Xander shrugged again.

"The part where you said if using the sacrifices of others is the path I want to follow. Admittedly, my actions do make it seem that way, but..." He gestured to their surroundings.

"You know perfectly well the name of this place and what it represents. Myriad Paths." He stepped closer to ’him’ and looked him dead in the eye. "But more than that. You know me best. Because we are the same person. So you know damn well what I would have done if I was about to lose." Hearing this ’his’ mouth twitched, and ’he’ looked like ’he’ was going to retort, but in the end, ’he’ looked away and mumbled.

"... You would have gone for mutual destruction, ensuring that you took the ant with you." Xander nodded.

"That’s right. I’m a selfish bastard, but I still have some pride." He sat on one of the petals and stared at ’him’.

"That said, if I could go back, I would choose to do it again. I have no regrets without how things turned out. Also, you have to admit..." Xander gestured to their surroundings and smirked. "This is cool as hell. You can’t even lie." ’He’ flinched, then looked away.

"Of course I can’t lie. I’m may be a manifestation of your doubts, but I am still you." Xander nodded at that.

"Glad that we are on the same page." There was a moment of silence, then ’he’ spoke again.

"I’m guessing that even after nearly getting your brain fried from simply almost looking at that thing, you’re not discouraged in the slightest?" Xander shook his head.

"Nope."

"And I’m guessing that you’re even more elated and determined to advance?"

"Yup."

’He’ sighed.

"You’re insane." Xander shrugged.

"I seriously doubt that any decently powerful person in the universe doesn’t have a few screws loose. Also counterpoint, slicing a demonic entity in half is cool as hell, so your argument is automatically invalid." ’He’ threw his hands up.

"You’re actually impossible." ’He’ rubbed his face and stared at Xander as ’his’ body started to be reduced to fade away.

"Fine, whatever. But I’ll be back. Don’t die before then." Xander simply hummed.

"I don’t doubt it."

Then, he woke up.