I feel it again, it's the same as last time, what's happening? I don't know, I'm sorry. Are you okay? Yes. Is he okay? Yes. Oh, okay, good.
...
We're going back again. Are you sure everything is okay? Yes I promise.
...
How many times have we gone back? Many. Oh. Does he know? Yes. Not the respawn. I mean about us. Ah. No. Not yet.
...
I like being here with you and Remi. I am Remi. No, I mean-- nevermind. We're going back again. Yes, we are.
...
I'm glad you can talk to me, it's nice. Is that right? Yeah. It was lonely. I was here from the start. I know. I mean, now that I know we can talk together. Oh, I see.
...
I don't like how it feels to go back. Neither do I. How does it feel like for you? I don't know. I just got used to it. That doesn't make any sense. I know.
...
Do you ever keep count? There's no point. You sound just like him. I am him. Oh, right. I forget sometimes.
...
How many times has it been? I said I don't keep count. Sorry. Don't be.
...
Can you feel him too? I can. He's crying, isn't he? Yes, we are.
...
Is there really nothing I can do help? There's not, he can't hear us or feel us. There's no way to change that? No.
...
I lost count too. That's why there's no point, you can't remember everything, and we have no paper here. I know, I just wanted to believe. There's nothing wrong with believing, it's what keeps us alive.
...
Have you ever tried to leave? No. Why not? Because I can't. Don't you ever want to? No. Oh.
...
This is the first time I've talked to someone like me. I'm not like you. That's not nice, we're both stars! I know, but I can't leave and you can. That's true, I guess... Why do stay here with us if you can leave? Cause-- because, I. You don't need to tell me if you don't want to. Um, maybe later.
...
It's been over a hundred, I think. Is that so? Yeah!-- wait, don't you know? Can't you read his mind? I'm how he experiences his mind. Then why doesn't he know we're here? He knows I'm here but he doesn't know you're here. Are you going to tell him? I can't tell him anything. Even though you're his mind? Even though I'm his mind.
...
You're really nice, I like you a lot. Thanks. I could stay here forever. That would make him really sad, you know. Yeah, I know, I still can't leave though. Why not? Because I'm a good person and good people don't hurt people. That's not true. You don't think I'm a good person? Not that-- good people can do their best and still hurt people, and that's okay. But not on purpose, right? No. Even on purpose.
...
I don't want to leave you. You could always come back. But! If you leave, I hope you'll come back, because I like you a lot too. Really?? Yes, I do. He does too. You know, even when he's dying in a loop like this, he's still thinking about you. Still thinking about how to bring you back. I know... It's okay to wait. Take your time. I'm here with you and he's here with you too, even if he doesn't know it.
...
I hope he's okay.
...
Are you okay?
...
Yeah, I am.
...
Okay, good. Good.
...

I bought some Ionian garb from a street vendor and changed in the restroom of the bar where I said my goodbyes. An uncomfortably scratchy undershirt, a dark green hooded cloak that feels cheaply made but at least looks the part, pants made of some kind of material I can't place my finger on, and a host of leather straps that I'm sure serve some kind of purpose. I wonder how many of them I'll be able to see again. Remi is doing his best. I know he is. I stuffed my Church clothes into my satchel and lifted my hood over my head before I left, back to the dirt street outside. Ugh. I miss the smooth, paved streets of Locria and the bars that felt like real bars. I'm getting sick of dumping rocks and gravel out of my shoes, and every building here makes me feel deeply uncomfortable, like I've stepped outside the Church and somehow transported myself a hundred years into the past. I could go for a smoke right about now. I walked through the Platier Bazaar down the main street of the district. It's a far cry from Market Street with it's tall skyscrapers and upscale retail and restaurants but it's quaint in a heart warming sense. I eavesdropped on a few locals and shopkeeps while browsing the open-air stalls and it seems like almost everyone knows each other here. I feel so, out of place.

Two hours into perusing, I learned nothing helpful, I heard nothing helpful, and I saw nothing helpful. Nobody here seems to know the name "Stratus Swift", or if they do, then they're pretending not to. There were a few arma dealers, but each stand had a clear description of each weapon's capability. Ugh, I'm starting to think I'm better off waiting until the dungeon subjugation is over so I can ask him myself, but I felt a tugging on my sleeve.

"..." It was a little girl, no older than twelve years old, a beastkin with black fur, black hair, and bunny ears, wearing tattered and ragged clothing.

"Oh, hi there! Did you lose your mommy and daddy?" I asked in a cheerful voice.

"..." She shook her head and her ears drooped down.

"I see! Do you need help?" I asked instead.

"..." She nodded and her ears twitched a little.

"Are you hungry?" I hunched over so I could hear her better, if she was talking at all.

"..." She shook her head again.

"What's your name?" I asked, a bit quieter.

"... Kei," she said, so quietly I almost couldn't hear her, and one of her ears drooped further down to hide her eyes. Her face is so flat and expressionless that she reminds me of Remi when he's deep in thought. Remi with bunny ears. Heh.

"Nice to meet you Kei! My name is Chloe. What do you need help with?" and with that, she tugged on my sleeve again and pointed toward a nearby alleyway and tried to drag me along. I hesitated for a moment and said, "Um, look, I don't know if it's the best idea for me to follow you, not that I don't want to help you, but--" but she gave me a tight hug and looked up at me with her precious, brown eyes.

"..."

I followed her. She was in a rush, and we hurried through a maze of buildings, all run down, and I started getting worried about my safety. Kei seems familiar with the area, but I still have no idea where we're going and I certainly won't be able to make it back to the Platier Bazaar on my own. As we kept going, the buildings started looking more and more broken down and abandoned, until we were in an area where every single building was condemned with boarded up doors and broken windows. I feel sick in here, like I need to throw up. The alleys themselves are filled with old bags of garbage and rotted down furniture, but I don't think it's the smell, something feels wrong in my chest. I peaked out into the streets as we rushed by them and I saw absolutely nobody. Not a soul. It's like everyone who lived here packed up and left everything behind.

"..." Still holding my sleeve, she stopped at the backside of what looks like a warehouse and pointed at a gated opening near the floor.

"Um, is there something down there?" I asked and tried to be kind and inviting but I'm honestly a little too freaked out to hide it and I think I let it show.

"..." She nodded and got on her knees to look through the opening and I reluctantly got down with her.

"What. What the fuck." One, two, three, four, five... sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty. There's twenty. Of her, Kei. I watched them in disbelief, all of them handling weapons and inscribing them with runes. This little girl is an Arma Mage? Not important, but who kidnapped-- no, stop stop stop. "Okay sweetie, could you give me a moment?"

"..." She nodded. I sat down on my calves and steepled my fingers together and tried to let mana flow through my soul, but it felt sharp and almost painful as mana trickled slowly through my heart. Is this what Axel was talking about? Mana sickness? As it traveled through my veins and arteries, I began to feel even more sick and nauseous than before, but I forced myself through it. With my eyes closed, I let what little mana I could afford leak out of my fingers, into the basement, and back to me. I saw small, dim clouds emitting from the twenty spots where her bodies stood working on the armas. Each one has a soul. Small, dim souls, but they have souls. I opened my eyes and tried to stand up but I almost fell over as I briefly lost vision in both of my eyes and lost control of my body. Kei pulled my sleeve hard to keep me upright and I only barely survived falling backwards.

"Ugh, thanks Kei," I said, rubbing my temples, and I looked at her. I want to check her soul in soulsight just to see if I could glean the mechanism behind her alternate bodies but I don't have anywhere near enough mana to spare. I can think about that later, for now, we need to find a way inside.

"How did you get outside?" I asked in a hurried voice.

"..." She shook her head and gripped on my sleeve tighter.

"Did you not come from inside of there?" I asked.

"..." She shook her head again, this time looking down at the floor.

"No, that's okay sweetie, I'll look for the door. Will you stay out here for me?"

"..." She shook her head one last time and hugged the side of my arm. It's okay, that's fine, it will be okay. We will be okay. I ran around the perimeter of the building looking for an entrance, but every window and door was boarded up. My Arcaenium training is useless here. My Hearth Magic is only barely good enough to light a cigarette-- maybe I could burn the planks off with some kindling? But that could risk causing a fire. Oh! "Could you make an arma for me?" I asked, handing her a twig.

"..." She nodded and took the twig in her palm.

"Okay, great! Try this, as best you can, okay? Instructions: turns wood to ash. Restriction: only works on planks that bar entry to buildings."

"..." She nodded again and started inscribing runes with her index finger onto the surface of the twig, and before I could even try to see what she wrote, she was done. I don't know how she managed to finish so quickly with such little mana available here, but I held her hand to support her anyways in case she got dizzy too.

"Good job, Kei! That was so quick," I said and for the first time, she broke her Remi-like face with a little smile, and her bunny ears shot straight up. I held the twig to the planks and tried to take in mana from the air to pour into it, and it was even more painful than soulcycling and soulsighting. After a minute, I tested the plank and it was certainly more brittle, but I feel sick and weak from what little I managed to pour in. I looked around, trying not to fall over, and picked up a rock a little bigger than my hand and started chipping away at the plank. I managed to make progress, breaking off chunks at a time, but by the time I finished I had torn some skin off my fingers and the combination of minor physical pain, mana sickness, and stress started building up and I had to take a moment to breathe. I looked over at Kei who was still gripping on my sleeve, and despite her expressionless face, I swear I could see a twinge of concern. "Don't worry! I'm okay. I just needed a little break."

We entered inside and it looked as deteriorated inside as it was outside. If anything it's more dangerous in here than out there, with the structural beams rotten and broken off in some spots, but I tried not to think about it. The smell of mildew was potent as well which didn't aid in my nausea. I barely noticed but I've been limping through for a while now, and I feel a dull pain across almost my entire body. I've studied mana sickness in Arcae but this is really what it feels like? It's awful. Awful.

"This is the way to the basement?" I asked and she led the way, continuing to tug on my sleeve.

"..." She nodded as we headed down a maze of hallways. Every step resonated a creek throughout the room and I really can't stand this anymore we need to get out of here as soon as we can. She led me down a flight of stairs at the end of the hallway and the steps themselves were equally as broken as the support beams and I worried we would fall through with every creak, but we made it to the bottom. With another door barred by another wooden plank that I once more had to turn to ash. Fuck. I can't, I can't do this. I held up the twig once more and Kei looked up at me and I looked down at her.

"It's, okay. Don't worry about it. Big sissy Chloe will take care of it," but before I could pour mana in, she held the end of the twig and poured in hers instead. I watched her carefully and supported her from behind so she wouldn't fall over, but when she was finished, the whole plank turned to ash and she was completely fine, no sign of fatigue whatsoever. Jeez. I must be getting old.

We walked in and I looked around. The walls were lined with crates overflowing with various items. Swords, shields, staves, polearms, jewelry, crowns, necklaces-- anything that looked even remotely like an arma. The Kei's shared these long worktables and stretched out benches, focused intently on their armas. It was uncanny. One of them finished what looked like a ring and tossed it across the room into one of the crates. None of them looked at us, at all.

"..." For the first time since we met, Kei let go of my sleeve and walked towards one of her other bodies. As she touched it, I saw it fade away in a white mist. What is actually happening right now? I quickly closed my eyes and positioned my fingers for soul sight and pushed past the now unbearable pain to send short pulses of mana out. As each wave came back, I saw the dim souls disappearing as Kei's grew slightly and slightly brighter with every disappearance, until I was forced out of soulsight via nausea. I dry heaved as I came out and almost fell over again, and Kei rushed over to me after taking back her last body.

"..." She supported me with a hug. I did not fall over.

"Oi, well look 'oo it is," I heard from behind me, and I jumped, "Didn't know yer all that into me. Over yer ro-mantic baggage already? Come 'ere to smoke about it, like ye promised?" He stood leaning against the entry door to the basement, and Kei swiveled behind me to hide from him. Stratus Swift.

"What the Hells is going on here?" I asked, "Shouldn't you be in the dungeon?-- did you abandon the party?"

"Nar, sweetheart, I'll 'ave you know I'm givin' it a real solid effort down there. Sylvie's still kickin', that sweet thing," he said with this awfully smug face, "if ye even care."

"What are you talking about?" I asked in disbelief.

"Tsk, tsk. Fer such a smart young lady, yer slow on the uptake, aintch'ya?" he said while laughing to himself.

"So, you can do it too? Just like her?" I asked incredulously.

"Nar cute thing, is more like she can do it just like me. Me own flesh 'n blood."

"..." Kei hugged me from behind as Stratus multiplied twice. Three of them, pointing their pistol "Cirrus" at me.

"You don't want to kill me. I'm a Cabinet member of the Locrian Church of Speculation and Prose, second in power only to the Archmagus himself."

"Aye, be that as it is. Nobody knows yer 'ere. Ain't that right?"

"As far as you know. Are you willing to take that bet? Because if you're wrong, no matter if you escape this room, the Church will stop at nothing to hunt you down like a demon. Now. Will you compromise? Or will you bet your life on it?"

"... Go on, then. What're the terms."

"I take the girl, you can keep the arma she already produced."

"Nar. Not 'appenin'"

"You don't have nearly as much leverage as you think you do. You've been caught peddling trap armas in an underground arma production ring without the explicit oversight of the Ionian Merchant's Guild. You could spend the rest of your life in prison, whether you kill me or let me live. You have two choices. The girl, or prison."

"Tsk. Half."

"What?"

"Half. I git half the girl. Yew git half. Win/win."

"No, that's still a win/lose."

"Yew got yer lev-rage. I got mine. I git half, or the girl dies."

"...!" I heard Kei give a scream and I turned around to see he had his pistol held to her head. How did I not see him? Is he that fast?

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" I yelled, and I could feel the nausea rushing back to me. I need to vomit.

"Half."

"But--"

"Half or the girl dies."

"If you kill her, the Church--"

"The Church don't care 'bout the girl. They let girls like'er die every day. Yer the only one who cares, now. Half. Or. The girl. Dies."

"... Fine. Half."

"That wa'n't so hard, eh sweetheart?"

"Hey Reggie!" I heard from behind me.

"Oh. Hey Kyle," I replied. I hate that nickname. If I ever get the chance to kill it, I'll replace it with something better.

"Did you watch the new episode of Re:Zero last night?" he asked.

"No," I replied.

"Aww come on, it's simulcasted. We'll have something to talk about together. I can give you my Crunchyroll login?" he offered.

"I'm okay," I said.

"Look, I know what you said about the checkpoints, but--"

"It's not that," I said, "Kyle, don't you ever get the feeling that life isn't real?"

"Uh, no, not really. Feels pretty real to me," and he pinched and stretched his cheek, "Why? Think you're dreaming?"

"It's not like that either. I know I'm alive, I know I'm awake, I know it's real. It just doesn't feel like it," I answered.

He snorted, "This weeb watches Lain one time, and now--"

"Whatever, forget it," I dismissed.

"Alright, I'll bite. What's got you feeling like this?" he asked.

"I don't really know. Sometimes it feels like I'm just a character in a story, and not even an important one. A background character with no background, no history, no meaning. You know how in anime, you can separate background characters from important characters based solely on how they're drawn? They have blank faces and generic hair and sometimes they're not even hand animated, it's some lazy CG."

"So, what, you want to dye your hair?" he asked.

"No, it's not like that at all. It's just that, life doesn't seem all that important or meaningful. You know, in a story, there's major conflicts that the protagnist needs to resolve, and if their life begins and ends as a story, then their whole life is fighting against a force that seems impregnable."

"Life isn't a story, Reggie. There are little, minor conflicts and resolutions, but most people will never face conflicts as awful as, I don't know, Subaru saving the people he loves from death. Is that what you really want?"

"Well, not that."

"Then what, then?"

"I don't know, anything! Literally anything. I just, I don't know. Nothing means anything to me. When I walk around, I don't even feel human. I don't feel anything. It's like I'm watching myself from the third person, unable to do anything to change it. All my life I feel like I've just been coasting by, wasting every free moment watching anime or playing video games, and I just think some kind of conflict could shake things up and make me feel human."

"So, what, life is too easy for you? Don't you think that's super privileged?"

"Oh boy, here we go, give it to me straight Mr. Resident Communist. Tell me about how my life is so easy because I'm straight, white, and middle class."

"Don't be such a dick. And there's a difference between communism and socialism. But yeah! Kinda! Like, I just don't get it. You have it made. You're a squeaky clean ivory coast liberal living in the richest region of the richest country in the world, you get to attend a nice cushy little charter school, and your mommy and daddy are going to pay your entire university tuition for you if it's not already going to be a full ride with your smartass 4.0 GPA. But, oh, it's soooo tough having nothing to worry about? You're just inventing your own class struggle because you have nothing to struggle with."

"Fuck you Kyle. You don't get it."

"Of course I don't get it, Reggie. My grades aren't good enough for scholarship money, my parents aren't around anymore, and you know what I'm doing, right now, when I'm not at this shit hole of a school? Flipping burgers. Know what I'll be doing in 4 years? Prolly still flipping burgers. You want a man vs. man conflict? Or man vs. fate? Man vs. nature? Well, mine is man vs. financial stability, but yours is you vs. yourself. Whatever man. When you're done crying about it, call me if you want to talk about the next episode of Re:Zero, that is, if you don't just want to bitch about it on /a/ too."

"Asshole."

...

I walked the permiter of the Church aimlessly. It's raining. How nice is that. Real thematic. I don't know how I could have done anything differently. How could I have done anything differently? It's so cold. I couldn't have. I did what I had to do. No, I could have. I could have done it differently. Maybe if I just keep trying. I could have kept going. There could have been a path, nobody had to die. I can barely feel my fingers. And what, I just gave up? I could have taken longer breaks. I should have taken longer breaks. Maybe I wouldn't have given up. Maybe I could keep an alter for them like Cali did for Skips. But... I don't know them. I know nothing about them. I don't even have a picture to frame for them. That's why I let them die.

D.S. v2.0 Results
Team One (DPS)

Team Two (Support)

Team Three (Tank)

Brainstorming
5th rule theories:

I woke up being gently shaken on the shoulder and as I woke up, I saw Chloe.

"Oh. Hey," I said, still drowsy from my nap.

"Hey! I missed you. How did it go?" she asked and my heart rate spiked again, just like when Sirrus held me at gunpoint.

"I, I don't want to talk about it right now. Did you find an Arma Mage for my suicide ring?" I asked.

"Well. Yes, and no," she said, trailing off at the end, "Remi, you don't have to talk about the mission if you're not ready, but are you okay?"

"I'm fine. About the Arma Mage?" I started.

"Hmm. Alright. Here, come meet her," she said as she led me by the hand out of my room.

"This is, um, Kei Swift," she stuttered as she introduced me to the girl sitting on the couch.

"Chloe, that's a child. Where did you find a child?" The kid didn't react at all. Just sat there on the couch, looking at me.

"That's so hard to explain," she said as she sat down on the couch next to her, and the kid looked at her instead, "she was being held captive, making illicit arma under threat of violence."

"Oh. I see," I said.

"The perpetrator was Stratus Swift, the Demon Hunter from team one," she said, "which means--"

"Wait what, Stratus? What do you mean? I was watching him the whole time," I asked.

"I know. He can split his body and soul into duplications of himself," she replied.

"Is this a well known practice in magic?" I asked.

"No. I've never seen anything like this before, and I'm willing to bet that the Church hasn't either. It's possible, but--"

"I watched him for months and months, I dedicated hours of my life every day to keep him alive, and I had no idea. How couldn't I have known?" I said.

"How could you have? I would speculate that this isn't a kind of magic he would want anyone knowing. The only reason I knew was because of Kei, who--"

"Wait, do you know how it works? Can other people learn it?"

"The only reason I knew was because Kei is his daughter and she can do it too. But listen, Stratus still has--"

"That's great news. Then we can run some tests and outline exactly what the rules of Clone Magic really are. Finally. We have leverage against the Church."