Chương 76: 76, Loop 2, Part 30

The spiders were losing because Flag was killing them. Or rather, a lot of Flags were killing them. When we entered the room, there had been thirty spiders. Now, there were… twenty-seven? Twenty-six? They were dying faster than I could keep count. At first, I thought they were more of the bell things from the second floor because they had the same shape to their carapace, but these ones were made of wood. And instead of electric rocks, they were shooting silk webs out of their mouths.

However, every time they did, the Flag clone would just jump out of the way. The nearest clone put a hand out on the water. And the water in front of it turned into ice before rising toward the ceiling rapidly, flattening a spider with a quick splat. Ice and spider fell, wrapped together, to the ground. It was dead in an instant. I didn't even know what spell Flag had used to do that, given he hadn't said a word. In fact, I hadn't heard a single Flag say anything yet—which was unnerving, to say the least.

"Is that Flag?" There was a note of uncertainty in Finn's voice. The uncertainty you get when you already know the answer and just don't believe it. There were more than a dozen Flag clones running around, acting utterly unlike my chipper friend. Instead, they were flinging spells like literal badasses. Prime Flag, the one attached to me by the gold tether, opted for something even more insane than using ice as a hammer.

He caught one of the spiders in his mannequin hand and literally smashed it face-first into the carved trunk of the giant tree. Multiple wooden legs snapped off like twigs and dropped into the water below before the corpse followed after. Despite the dramatic scene, its corpse floated haphazardly at the water's edge. I stood there slack-jawed, doing a pretty good impression of Finn. Because it just didn't make fucking sense. Flag. What the fuck? I said through our tether link.

But he left me on read like he was ghosting my sending stones. I just didn't understand the extreme and sudden change in his personality. Sure, he'd been a massive help our entire time in the dungeon, but violence was not in his skill set. Like, at all. Where had this come from? Finn's brain finally kicked into gear, and he decided he was going to try and help Flag fight. But as soon as the first [Force Bolt] flew from his wand, the last of the spiders was already dropping dead. And then it was silent.

The spiders had all been killed by the Flags, and we just stood there in silent awe. Axe was the first one to break it.

"I will make sure they are all dead. I do not want a repeat of the treant incident. I am still greatly disturbed by the missing threats." He somehow managed to emphasize the word, which didn't make a lot of sense to me. And then he went to every spider corpse and cut it in half with his axe-head, one at a time. Nobody had asked him to do that, and honestly, it really just felt like a major waste of his time. But it would be an even greater waste of mine to argue with him, so I was going to let him be.

The first spider split in half with a loud whack. Blood as thick as molasses leaked out onto the platform. But as it spread, it started bubbling. Each bubble burst with a small pop and got faster and faster until, like a clone coming out of the water mirrors, a new Flag appeared, standing where the puddle had once been. A red and gold tether suddenly shot out from its back toward Prime Flag. Somewhere around the time Axe split the ninth corpse, Prime Flag finally decided to walk over to us.

I was caught off guard by just how normal his mannerisms were. His walk was the normal Flag walk I'd gotten used to—awkward and stumbling, just how you'd expect a mannequin to walk. But I couldn't peel my eyes away from the twenty-plus tethers sprouting from his back. They were splayed out behind him in a bizarre mimicry of the legs on the things he had just killed. Behind him, Axe split another corpse open. The blood bubbled, and a new Flag climbed out.

"Hello, Lazlo," Flag said out loud in a voice that was almost too chipper for him. Almost.

"You're here. I was hoping you'd be here. Look how high up we are, and there's a ceiling. I love ceilings. Have you seen ceilings before? This is the closest I've ever been to one."

"Flag?" I asked uncertainly.

"Yes?" he replied in his normal tone, patiently waiting for my response. I ran through all the different ways I could approach this conversation. Because, well, his voice was slightly off, but it was still him, right? I mean, I couldn't imagine anybody getting that dialogue of his correct.

"How did you... I, uh... You, uh... you killed all those spiders?"

"Oh, yes," he said.

"They were biting the tree, and it made the tree sad." This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. I looked at his back again, trying to hide my nervousness at the power he had amassed. My gold tether still ran from his chest to mine, exactly where it had been since the start of the loop. Everything else was new.

"Sixteen." Behind Flag, Axe destroyed yet another corpse.

"Flag. Just how many clones are there?"

"I don't know." He shrugged.

"Is it a lot? I'd like to have a lot of clones. They sound just like me, and they think like me, and they're a lot of fun to be around. I've been calling them Flag one, and Flag two, and Flag three, and Flag four, and Flag five." He kept going. Finn elbowed me, taking a moment to finally say something.

"Is that really Flag? Is he really in control of them all?"

"I mean, you heard him. It'd be kinda hard to fake that enthusiasm."

"That's not all I asked you, dude." I knew what he was trying to get at. How exact did I want to be? A part of me was worried about the inevitable reset making it pointless to say. If I even ended back up in the loops." [Soul Tether] s, and tethers in general, don't really split, so I'm not sure what's going on. As best as I can tell, a tether is attached to your soul or your mana core, and it connects with another soul or another mana core. It's how golems operate, and it's how Flag and Axe operate.

We're connected to their souls. But whatever's going on with these clones, it's superseding that system. But it's still one Flag soul, and however many clones, connected by a red and gold tether.

I assume that the red tether connects all the way back to the dungeon, Finn."

"Huh. Well, that's not the least bit scary." He stared up at the ceiling to something I'd been avoiding.

"I wonder if they're being helped or hindered by their tethers."

"I mean, didn't you see the tethers when you were..." But I trailed off, because I'd been talking about tethers for a solid minute without even checking on Flag.

"No. I don't even see tethers, I've just been taking your word for it that they are a thing. I just see a bunch of clones." During our brief conversation, Flag went on and on, counting every single Flag clone. By the time he reached twenty-three, Axe had already made another one, and Flag corrected himself once again. Finn made a strangled sound, like he was trying hard to hide a laugh. But he was still staring at the ceiling. I'd been unconsciously avoiding it.

Which was odd, because it was the first time we'd been close enough to see one since entering the water well. And, well, I liked to know how I was being trapped in a room if I could help it. In between the tree's branches and sheets of spider webbing, I could make out solid gray stone brick. [Wideview], narrowed down until I could pick out the red tether connecting Flag and something just above our heads. Which confirmed my suspicions about the source of the red coloring of the tethers.

But unlike the rest, which were either solid gold, blue, or a mix of colors, this one was a solid blood-red. And pulsing much faster than any of the others. I didn't like the look of it at all.

"Twenty-six," Axe said, cutting another one in half. I finally decided how I was going to handle this conversation, because I really needed to get right to the root of things.

"Why is there a tree on this floor? This is the water half. Trees go on the other side."

"Huh?" Flagsaid.

"Oh, I, um... I'm not sure I'm supposed to tell you that."

"What the fuck does that mean? It's me, Flag. Laz. You can tell me anything."

"I know, and I normally would, but the dungeon doesn't want you to know yet. He says it would ruin the big surprise. And he's all about surprises." Flag delivered this with the same old cheerful tone he'd had the entire time he'd been talking to me. Whatever was going on, it was clear that while Flag still sounded like himself, he didn't quite have full control to do everything he wanted. More and more tethers sprouted from his back.

"Thirty," Axe grunted. And then he jumped. Literally jumped into the air.

"It is finished. They are all gone." He started doing his weird-ass silent maniacal laughter. I looked around the room. Thirty missing corpses, thirty new Flags. There were now forty-five other Flags scattered about. Some crowded against each other on multiple mismatched platforms, while others walked along the surface of the black water as if it were solid ground. I didn't like the look of things. Not one bit. I had had a hard enough time fighting replicas of me.

Who knew how fighting this seemingly badass version of Flag would go?

"Laz," Finn said quietly to my left, where he'd been cowering the entire time.

"How much, uh, mana do you have?" He was thinking exactly what I was thinking. Didn't take a genius to know we were about to be fucked five ways from Monday. And then the whole room started shaking. A high-pitched musical note started trilling. I was vaguely reminded of birthday celebrations, or the victory fanfare played at the end of tournaments. Suddenly, a chest plopped out of the sky, right at my feet. I jumped half a foot back, just to make sure it didn't land on my toes.

"I'm assuming that's for us," Finn said.

"That's bait," I said.

"You know that's bait, right? The second I open that, everything's going to hand in a hellbasket." But as much as I was protesting it, I knew I was going to open it. I was lazy, not dead. And everybody knew my biggest vice in the world was my curiosity. I considered kicking it open from a safe distance, but decided against the extra effort for safety. I just opened the chest. I was a bit confused. I'd been expecting the final normal door key, or yet another random-ass tool like the hand crank.

But instead, there was a wildly ornate key, with a tree trunk and branches for the top, and eight spider legs for the actual key teeth. As soon as I picked it up, Flag leaned over to inspect it.

"Oh," Flag said, delighted.

"He must want to meet with you for the finale. That's the Master Key."