Vandalieu extended his claws towards it, but stopped. "I can't bring myself to do it," he said. “Maybe because it's me? Normally, I think if I met another
version of myself, we would hate each other, though."
"I might have unexpectedly been a narcissist," said the false image. “But what will l do? Even if l'm me, I can't go forward as long as l exist."
"This is problematic; me being me, I find it unpleasant to attack myself."
Vandalieu and the false image stared at each other for a while as Vandalieu pondered the situation, but he couldn't bring himself to attack the image and
move on.
"I suppose it really is because it's myself... I'm me. Because I have my memories and personality, I'm me," he said.
"I also have my memories and personality. But I'm not me; I'm a false image," said the false image.
"With my memories and personality, you can be called me. Your appearance is the same, too. Is there a meaning behind the difference between reality and
falsehood?" said Vandalieu.
"Reality is a false image, and a false image is reality? It's not impossible. I'm me, and I'm me," said the false image.
"I'm me –" the two said in unison.
"And I'm me," said Vandalieu, becoming one with the false image.
A door silently appeared, and Vandalieu walked through it to see the staircase to the next floor.
(The Levels of Dark Demon Creation Path Enticement, Guidance: Dark Demon Creation Path, Long-distance Control, Materialization, Parallel Thought
Processing, High-speed Thought Processing, Grotesque Mind and Mental Encroachment have increased!)
"Really? Even Queen Donaneris and the others said that they struggled with that trial, so I was worried, you know?"
"But even Queen Donaneris said, 'His Majesty will be fine,' didn't she?"
Queen Donaneris's instinct had told her that Vandalieu would be able to clear this challenge with ease due to his mental structure that was different from that
of ordinary people. And she had been right.