[SP-F6] <<Calming the Soul>> (Completed)

[Darius Verand 0]

They now faced off, a few feet away form each other, both taking a boxer stance. There was something unsettling about his reflection though. It was smirking; something Darius would never do. Darius then remembered what the reflections represented though; his fears and insecurities. He was not to anger, not to upset. He was to win and become stronger, as he always had done in the past. He nodded to his reflection, who stuck its tongue out at him in reply. They then started to take step by step towards each other.

[Darius Verand 0]

As Darius drew near his reflection, it suddenly kicked dirt up at his face. Darius moved his arms in the way, blocking the dirt, but as he did so, his reflection sprinted forward, punching Darius low in the gut. Darius ignored the false sensation to double over like you would in the real world and instead lashed out with his forearms from where they protected his face in an X shape, acting like scissors as they went to slam across each side of his reflection's head, but his reflection moved impossibly fast with such intense reflexes, Darius was startled for a second. It dropped its head back out of range from Darius' attack by literally centimeters, then came back, countering with a punch too Darius' right elbow with its left fist.

[Darius Verand 0]

Darius now back peddled, trying to escape the onslaught of his reflection. It seemed to grow stronger and faster since their first bout. His reflection kicked out at Darius' side with its left leg. Darius took the hit and exhaled, lessening the impact. He did exactly what his reflection had done and reached down to hook his right arm around his reflections leg. As he started to pull it to spin it, it smiled at him and hopped up off the ground and back slightly, pulling Darius forward right into a savage kick from its right leg to Darius' chest, which sent him flying back onto his back.

[Darius Verand 0]

As Darius lay on his back, he observed his HP bar, which was in red. He tilted his head slightly to look at his reflections, which was untouched, as if it had regained all of its HP while Darius wasn't looking. He didn't understand how it had grown so strong so fast, regained so much health, decimated him completely. He lowered his head, feeling the urge to cry since he would die here, in this waterfall cove to himself. But he would not give his reflection the satisfaction of seeing him distress before death. As he heard its feet slapping off the ground as it drew near him he thought to himself how if he did die, no one would miss him. He had no friends on SAO, no friends in real life, and hated his parents. Nothing and no one to go back to. This was his life, the best few months of it. He couldn't even say that he had truly lived before SAO. A meager existence of being shunned, depressed, and alone was all he had before he had been given a duty and purpose of clearing SAO to send those who wanted to see their family again home.

[Darius Verand 0]

And so it was with those thoughts that Darius laid there, accepting his fate. He closed his eyes as his reflection came into his vision, listening to the soft rush of the waterfall, smelling the crisp air, feeling the humidity in the air. All in all, he was glad he could die in this world doing something with his life rather than rotting as a vegetable in a hospital in some city in the real world. It meant more to him. He breathed deep and everything negative in his body left him. And smiled. A genuine smile for the first time in so long that it felt foreign to him. Then something he never expected to happen happened. Instead of his reflection crushing him and sending him into pixels, he felt it kiss his forehead.

[Darius Verand 0]

He opened his eyes with a start, looking up to his reflection. His actual reflection. No longer black hair and crimson eyes, but dirty blond hair and sky blue eyes. It smiled to him and he just stared in bewilderment back. It held out a hand for him and he cautiously took it and his reflection helped him to his feet. "You've won. Live now and fear death no more. It is nothing to you compared to your hardships. As Bruce Lee once said,'Pray not for an easy life, but for the strength to endure a hard one'. I now give you the strength you need to go a step farther to fulfill your duty for those who know not the hardships the troubled face," he heard himself speak in his own mind.

[Darius Verand 0]

As he looked on his reflection in bewilderment about what it meant of giving him power, he saw its health rapidly deplete to zero where it then shattered into pixels, leaving behind a small blue orb in its wake. Darius reached out and took the blue orb in his hand, where it dissipated and flowed over his outline, sinking into his skin. He was then given the notification that he gained the ability . He looked up to the clear sky as it slowly began to fade back into the jungle, pushing him from his adobe. He nodded to himself, re-equipped his gear, and left; never to return.