Not wasting a second, Lily leaped off the ear of the statue and back onto the shoulder, barely managing to bnce.


    After finding her footing, Lily immediately pulled out her wand before using one of the spells she had copied from a teacher.


    Almost immediately, a gigantic shield made of pure blue water appeared, covering the statue''s right side.


    As the arrows hit the water shield, they were immediately repelled away, now heading in the opposite direction.


    Not letting her guard down, Lily spotted two more arrows, which had their tips colored a peculiar green.


    Seeing them heading towards the left side of the statue, Lily reinforced the shield by embueing more mana.


    Then she moved her wand to the left, dragging the water shield to the left side of the statue as well.


    Further away from the statue, through a very slight and unnoticeable hole in the ground, Han aimed his crossbow out.


    Seeing his arrows blocked once again, Han rapidly closed the hole before falling back down into the underground.


    Looking at the massive area of space, Han sighed for a moment, appreciating their hard work, before sprinting to the area right under the statue.


    They had cleared out the entire underground, making it no longer a tunnel but an entire cavern close to the size of a ssroom in the Celestial Academy.


    Shivering as he passed by the gigantic ice pir, which was now just randomly in the middle of their cave, Han spotted Jin.


    Seeing him, Han immediately yelled out.


    "YOUR TURN."


    Nodding his head, Jin walked over to the area, which was filled with countless portals that were waiting to be used by Jin.


    Spotting the over five portals just sitting, Jin thought for a moment.


    "...ah, which one was I supposed to use first?"


    Examining each portal, Jin attempted to identify which one had been created first by their mana flow.


    Each portal had a golden arc on the exterior, and inside the arc, it was pure-purple, so he wasn''t able to see where the portal would take him.


    Finding the correct magic portal, Jin unsheathed his long and sharp katana, pointing it forward.


    Taking onest nce at the massive cavern they had created, Jin grinned before jumping head-first into the portal.


    The next second, the portal disappeared, leaving Han alone in the cave.


    Illuminated by the light-yellow orb of the statue''s wand, Jin stood right next to the statue''s base.


    Then, without a second of hesitation, Jin began hacking at theyers of ice around the statue''s base with his katana.


    Finishing another circle around the statue''s base, Alya quickly spotted Jin, who was hacking at theyers of ice she hadbored desperately to create.


    Seeing Alya nearby, Jin stopped hacking and began running around the base of the statue, hacking with his katana with the ice as he passed by.


    Following his lead, Alya chased after him, but her efforts to add more ice were canceled out by Jin''s hacking, which weakened the base.


    "...what is that."


    Pausing midchase, Alya saw a portal with a golden arc and purple outside form to the right of the base.


    However, realizing that the statue was continuing to be weakened by Jin, she ignored it and sprinted after him, still addingyers of ice as she ran around the base.


    Lily, noticing the arrows had halted, frantically looked around the ssroom-sized magic space, trying to find the culprit.


    However, instead of finding the culprit... she found something much worse.


    In the far right corner of the magic space, with his back to the closing barrier, stood a familiar figure.


    Holding a dagger in each of his hands, the figure made eye contact with Lily... before waving his daggers at her as if he were a teammate and not an enemy.


    Not fooled, Lily opened her mouth to let Liam and the others know... but as she nced around another time, she noticed something else.


    "...what...?"


    Another "Ren" was standing in the far left corner of the magic space, waving his two pitch-ck daggers as well.


    ...they weren''t waving at her; they were waving at himself!?


    Regaining herposure, Lily yelled out.


    "INCOMING FROM THE RIGHT AND LEFT."


    Ignoring Lily''s callout, Liam and Kevin stayed still and continued to keep the tower in ce, having already found the equilibrium.


    On the other hand, Ruby and Irene nodded at each other before splitting up, Ruby heading to the right while Irene went to the left.


    Seeing the "Rens," the two of them paused for a moment before slowly pulling out their wands, the tip sparkling a fiery red.


    Ruby, staring at the figure of "Ren" in front of her, sighed before saying.


    "You know... you really do seem like a viin right now."


    Ren was dressed in a pitch-ck outfit, with two night-ck daggers dangling from each of his hands.


    Smiling, Ren replied.


    "I knew you''d choose this side."


    Leaning to the right, Ruby matched his smile and questioned.


    "Why is that?"


    Mirroring Ruby and leaning to the right, Ren answered.


    "And how do you know that this is the actual me?"


    Shaking her head, Ruby replied.


    "Didn''t I already tell you? Being sarcastic and lying isn''t for you."


    Knowing she had probably found out his clone trick from their time in the dream, Ren sighed and replied.


    "You do know, you''re supposed to choose the other side."


    Walking over to Ren with her wand still lit up in her hand, Ruby tilted her head to the right and asked.


    "Am I?"


    On the other side, Irene, calm andposed, stood upright with her wand aimed right at Ren.


    As sparks began to generate on the tip of her wand and the temperature began to increase around her, Irene replied.


    "Once a dumbass, always a dumbass."


    Cocking his head to the right, ignoring the fact that Irene was casting a spell, "Ren" smiled and replied.


    "I guess I am?"


    Surprised by hisck of dodging or moving for that matter, Irene sighed and said.


    "Have you epted your fate?"