Versatile: Alternate World

The Pope grinned seeing me easily overcome my own doppelganger and rush straight to him with the Versatile Weapon ready to strike.

"Now, now. There is no need to rush. You will have your own time to face me but for now, sit on the sidelines for now."

BANG!

I suddenly collided with an invisible wall that blocks my path toward the Pope. But unlike the collision I had with many invisible walls in the past timeline where I would just stop there and fall down to the ground, the wall seems to have absorbed the impact, then rebounded all of it back to me.

I was sent flying by the rebound of the invisible wall but luckily, it was not as strong as most rebounds I have experienced and I easily managed to regain my balance. I used my wings to easily maneuver myself and recover my fighting stance in case something happens... and I was right because behind me on where I was supposed to land is my doppelganger who managed to recover its body already ready to stab me with his sword.

Now that I recovered my stance, I shoot down the Doppelganger once more with my gun though I  already know that the Pope already modified it to handle gun attacks and easily evade or defend from it so when it dodged, I followed it up by throwing an item I made, Flashbang. I barely use it as I have no usage for it at the moment and today would be the day I used one.

The flashbang explodes in blinding lights causing the Doppelganger to flinch which allowed me to gain a chance and quickly reach the back of the doppelganger and stab it on its heart and rip away the little tether from the Pope that connects to the Doppelganger that channels up the life of the guy and keeping it alive and continue to get revived until the tether gets damaged. How do I know this? Because a similar boss does the same in the past timeline known as the [Great Puppeter].

Cutting it made the Pope flinch as one of the controls he had on the doppelgangers was disconnected and it gave him a slight pain though I am sure that it was too minor for it to become fatal. But now that the tether is cut off, the Pope can't make another doppelganger.

Instead of attacking the Pope immediately, I headed to the other areas instead. As I traverse the hall that the Pope made for us to be divided, I found a few invisible walls, creating several maze-like paths which means the Pope is really hoping for us to not meet up with each other but that doesn't mean I can't get them out of there.

As I went to look for them, the Pope tried to stall me by creating tentacle traps that spring up whenever I pass through them. It was easy to avoid and spot them but they were annoying to avoid as they sometimes sprout not on the floor but sometimes on the walls or in blindspots that I can't see immediately.

I want to defeat the Pope as soon as possible and I can possibly solo him easily but I don't want to cut the awards of the others from defeating the pope because they are stuck fighting against their own Doppelganger and with the invisible walls currently up to stop me from getting closer to the Pope, it also means I just needed to seek out everyone and help them out of their predicament.

Before I get to the next turn, Sigma also appeared, crossing my way with her. Behind her are Atlas, Cotton, and Lucia who also got separated from me after the Pope did his stunt

"Thank goodness I found you Bladeheart. Have you seen the other players?"

"Nope, I am looking for them at the moment. By the way, did you defeat your Doppelganger?"

"Yeah. Since it can't handle the Holy Energy, it was easily defeated. Atlas and Lucia here spotted the tether that supplies my doppelganger's lifespan and easily destroyed them allowing me to get myself out of the predicament. And since the way to the boss was blocked off, I decided to go off with these two and find the others as well."

"Hehe, it's not that hard to spot as it sticks out like a sore thumb," Lucia grinned.

"The problem is now the others. I don't know whether they are fine or not after we got separated. I was fine since Cotton here is with us so I didn't smell anything but what about the others who started barfing earlier? Will they be stuck barfing instead of fighting their copies?"

I shook my head this time around. Compared to the smell before we arrived here, there was no rotten smell here. Just the damp smell of mold. It only got fragrant when I reunited with Cotton and the others. Unlike the disgusting rotten smell before, the smell right now in this area is not bad enough to cause them to puke as the scent is just similar to the usual scent you can smell inside dungeons.

"Thankfully, it's not a foul smell. It's just the usual damp and moist smell you mainly smell when entering catacombs and caves."

"Well, that's good then. We should immediately go before the Pope makes another attack. Until we escape the invisible wall he put, then we will have to keep on finding the others and help them with their own doppelgangers as well," said Sigma who confidently shows that she is not troubled at all by the traps that the Pope has laid out.

We shared intel on our way and where we should go next. Since the ways we came from are already surveyed by us and no one was there, we went to the only path that we have yet to explore and continue to that until we spot a tentacle/blob-like monster.

Before I can even attack it, Atlas already charged forward and Cotton shot a sticky liquid that stops it from moving, allowing Atlas to tear the monster to shreds in seconds. It didn't even get to retaliate and perished before it spotted us.

As we continue to move, soon we heard the sound of cannon fire not too far. It's kind of muffled but I can't mistake that sound for anything and besides, no one else from our group is capable of making that sound aside from me and Tsuru. Sigma and I exchanged glances before we head to the sound of the cannon fire. It took us a while to get in as the invisible barriers appeared and we cannot bypass them by flying as the barrier extends up to the top so we have to walk around the barrier and find a way in or out from it.

When we arrived, instead of a Doppelganger, what we saw are multiple of those tentacular monsters alongside some four-limbed crawling cretins that looked like deformed laboratory-experimented dogs that lost all of their hair. There are already a lot of corpses of those monsters around but there are still plenty of them around and Tsuru is already exhausted from fighting as he was backed into the corner.

Seeing that this is beyond his control now, we stepped in and helped him save his own ass from trouble. Sigma and I focus on those hairless dogs while Lucia and Atlas alongside Cotton focus on the tentacle monsters. Tsuru didn't expect help to arrive but he sighed in relief seeing us and joined our fight.

The monsters are weak so they are not even a big threat to me and Sigma. Although Tsuru did his best to hold them back, he didn't have the same stamina as us to last long enough to fight enemies back to back to back. He is good at fighting but he does not last that long.

"I thought I was a goner back there. It would have been a pain if I have died but thankfully, you all allowed me to destroy them before they overwhelm me."

"How come you are fighting so many of those guys in the first place?" I asked him since I didn't even get to find a lot of those monsters on our way to him."

"Nah, it's my doppelganger's fault I was on that problem. If it didn't fire its cannon that was copied from me after it died, those monsters wouldn't come here and attacked me and I was exhausted from the fight against the Doppelganger so you have seen how that has ended."

"So they are sensitive to sounds. We should take note of that since they are prowling all around. We can use that to our advantage later on," Sigma mentally noted.

"Where are the others?" Tsuru asked.

"We still haven't found them. Also, we can't fight the boss directly because he blocked most of our way to him by putting invisible barriers."

"Then, we should find them as soon as possible. I still don't like it seeing that the Pope is just there in the distance watching me fight. I have to beat the sh*t out of that guy and wipe off the grin on his face!"