78. The 8th gate

Mack took his clothes at the entrance and flyed back to the gate.

He was not in a hurry, he fell that he already accomplished everything in this gate, with that, he had no reasons to stay in this kind of enviroment anymore.

That and the fact he wished to leave the tower as soon as possible made him feel like he was running from something, maybe he was.

The questions that popped in Mack head, one after another made him fear for the worst. Made him fear that he would need to get way stronger to be able to live once he left the tower.

But a life was a luxury for Mack, he already forget what that was, what he really feared was that he was not strong enough to get his revenge.

That realization came with the void flame.

If that thing was so powerfull, and his ancestor owned it, and yet was not able to take care of things, what he could do?

His ancestor seemed to have everything needed for that, wealth, power, and a mind capable of plotting for hundred of years ahead.

"If that cunning bastard was not able to get his revenge, it means, mages are way more powerful than I expected. It seems the real trials only started."

Said Mack to himself as if to confirm his own thoughts while touching the giant gate that stood above the small island in the center of the lava lake.

After being transported Mack looked behind and saw the terrain of the new trial.

Oddly, it was as if he was inside an old castle. Mack looked to his sides to confirm and it was the same, walls made of very large stones just like the floor.

The place he was in seemed like a room of a castle with only one door to leave.

The usual plaque was also there.

Mack approched it and saw the familiar runes over the plaque.

# Win against yourself and you will lose to no one, but there can be only one #

Mack read the text and become puzzled th4 last line seemed to imply way more than he expected.

"There can be only one."

Said Mack, as if to engrave in his mind that line while unsheting his sword from his belt and walking to the door he had to enter.

Passing the door, Mack saw a small corridor and a blinding white light at the end of it.

The white light was so strong that was impossible for Mack to see what wad behind.

With no choice he walked ahead and corssed that white film like light.

Recovering his eyesight Mack saw an stadium, similar to the coliseum from Rome, but there was no open sky, instead, a dome made of stone bricks covered the entire stadium.

Mack looked to his right side and saw another man standing there just like him.

But to his shock, that man was identical to himself.

"A light construct?"

Mack looked to his left and another man popped from nowhere. Again, identical to Mack.

Mack remembered how he entered and looked behind, but there was no door behimd him, only a wall made of rock bricks.

No sure if he should act immediately, he waited, light constructs were no problem for him after all.

While Mack atood there more and more 'Macks' appeared in the stadium.

~sigh~

Mack let go a sigh, test like those were nothing to him. Light constructs were made of Essence after all, and his domain runespell could kill them like bugs.

Mack raised his two hand and extended them.

But when he was about to activate his domain runespel a voice echoed in the entire atadium

~ Dear heir of mine ~

"Whats this? The ancestor?"

Asked to himself Mack

[Correct, this gate has an announcement recorded by your ancestor. Listen carefully]

"Interesting"

~ this gate took me almost a century to finish, and can be said to be very special ~

Mack heard that but could not find anything of so big importance. Just a bunch of light constructs with the same appearence of him.

~ this gate is a point of singularity ~

"huh?"

~ in other words it connects all parallel dimension where you exist and have reached this same gate in your own parallel world, no matter the time ~

"Shit."

Said Mack, having a bad premonition thinking about the next words of his ancestor.

~ and there can be only one of you ~

Mack looked around again, there was dozen of him. But what made Mack anxious was not the numbers, but the realization that came with his ancestor announcement.

All of those 'Macks' were real.

In flesh and bones, just like him.

Mack counted them all. And there was exaclty 12 including himself.

Mack didn't knew if to be proud or if to fear for his own life.

Those eleven 'Macks' were as ruthless as him or even more.

After all, to reach this point in the tower, there was no shortcuts. Mack himself almost went insane and forgot the number of times he wished to be dead.

To reach this point of the tower one needed to be as fearless and insane as him.

In his entire life Mack never feared a enemy.

Expect for now.

Because he knew himself better than anyone.

He was a psycho.