What Witch? This Alchemist is Breaking Bad!

Following his instructions, Rena controlled the Demon Wolf and sent it into the pitch-black chamber.

It made a full circuit inside, sniffing everywhere, even scratching and pawing at the walls of the hidden room.

In the end, no mechanisms were triggered.

"I’ll go in and take a look. Stay outside and keep watch first." After giving Rena his instructions, Leon picked up the lantern and walked inside.

The secret chamber was not large.

Once inside, the lantern was enough to illuminate most of it.

On the innermost wall stood a statue fixed in place—a goddess draped in thorns.

A thorn pierced through her chest, and the veil carved over her head obscured her face, making her features indistinct.

Behind the statue was engraved a massive pentagram emblem.

Although some details differed from the statues of Moilai that Leon knew, many elements were clearly similar.

If this temple had truly been built by the ancient Ailanders, then the Earth Mother they worshiped was very likely Moilai herself.

Aside from the statue, the only other object in the room was a square stone platform in the center.

Its surface was carved with some text.

Leon glanced at it a few times but could not understand it at all.

However, he could tell it was written in the same script that Rena had just deciphered at the entrance—“Chamber of Ritual.”

Leon circled the stone platform once.

He found no openings or mechanisms.

It resembled a table, yet also a stone bed.

Other than the inscriptions on its surface, there was nothing.

Was there really a need to hide a room like this so thoroughly?

"Leon, how is it?" Rena called out to him.

After looking around and sensing no obvious danger, Leon shouted back, "Why don’t you come in after all? There’s some writing here—I can’t read it."

Upon hearing this, Rena cautiously stepped into the chamber and came to Leon’s side, carefully examining the text on the stone platform.

"Can you read it?" Leon asked.

"Offer to the Mother Goddess—the Rite of Procreation?" Rena narrowed her eyes as she slowly identified the words carved on the stone platform.

"This—what does it mean?"

"Procreation? Rite?" Upon hearing her interpretation, Leon vaguely realized something.

He quickly recalled what Johnny had once told him about the ancient Ailander traditions: the witch who served as the Earth Mother would unite with a chosen tribal hero in the temple as a sacrifice to the Earth Mother.

Could it be that the so-called ritual was not performed at the altar, but specifically inside this secret chamber?

Thinking of this, Leon could not help but let out an awkward laugh.

How was he supposed to explain this to Rena?

"Is this an ancient statue of Moilai? So what exactly is this room used for?" Rena asked, studying the statue in confusion.

"Forget it, Rena. Let’s head out first—" Leon began to suggest.

Before he could finish, a rumbling sound suddenly echoed.

Leon and Rena both turned toward the entrance.

The door that had opened automatically earlier shut without warning.

"Ah!" Rena cried out.

Leon sucked in a sharp breath and, without hesitation, grabbed Rena’s hand and ran toward the exit.

However, the narrow passage between the room and the door slowed them down.

The stone door closed with extraordinary speed—they did not even have time to touch it before it slammed shut with a heavy clack.

"Why did it suddenly close?" Rena panicked at once.

"Are we trapped inside?"

"Don’t panic." Leon said this while feeling around near the stone door and passageway, but he could not find anything resembling a mechanism.

When they entered, the door had opened inexplicably.

Now it had closed just as inexplicably, trapping them inside.

Finding nothing near the door, Leon and Rena retreated into the room.

Rena was already at a loss.

"Leon, this—what do we do? We didn’t trigger some kind of trap, did we?"

"If this were a trap, it should’ve been something more lethal. Let’s look for clues. Since this chamber was built, there should be a way to open it—" Leon began scanning the room for hints.

When his gaze returned to the stone platform, he suddenly froze.

The line of text on the platform began to gather magic power, emitting a faint glow that stood out especially in the dim chamber.

Leon fell silent.

A secret chamber.

A condition for opening it.

Offering the Rite of Procreation to the Mother Goddess.

The ancient Ailander tradition—

Did that mean they had to complete the ritual before they could leave this room?

He had a vague feeling he had heard of something like this in certain works from his previous life.

""

Could something like this actually exist!?

"Rena—" Leon called hesitantly, already thinking about how to explain this to her.

At that moment, Leon sensed the dense magic filling the room begin to move in an unusual pattern.

Although the lantern’s flame was still burning, he suddenly felt darkness descend before his eyes.

"Ah!" Rena let out a cry—she could no longer see either.

"Rena, over here!" Leon hurriedly reached out in the direction where she had just been standing, trying to grab her hand first.

In the darkness, Rena responded in the same way.

Leon felt her grasp both his hands with hers.

Fortunately, the darkness lasted only a few seconds before abruptly dissipating.

The lantern’s light once again illuminated the entire space.

Then Leon froze in place.

In front of him stood two Renas side by side.

Each extended one hand, holding his left and right hands respectively.

The two Renas looked at each other and simultaneously drew in sharp breaths, as though staring into a mirror.

"This—" Leon stared at the doubled Rena in shock and instinctively let go of both their hands.

"It’s a Doppelganger!" the Rena on the left suddenly shouted, pushing Leon away while distancing herself from the other version of herself.

"Leon, be careful! It’s a Doppelganger!"

"No, you’re the Doppelganger!" the Rena on the right retreated as well, pointing at the left one and shouting to Leon, "Leon, don’t trust her!"

"A Doppelganger—so it really exists?"

Leon recalled the rumors about Doppelgangers that circulated in the labyrinth.

Legend said that within the labyrinth there existed a type of monster without a fixed form.

It could transform into the appearance of any creature and even read the shallow surface thoughts of humans, taking the form of someone close to its target in order to approach them.

Once the target let down their guard, it would kill them.

It was as if it were a dangerous monster designed specifically to prey on humans.

However, there had never been definitive proof of its existence.

It was said that once killed, a Doppelganger’s form would collapse and dissipate, leaving only the accounts of labyrinth explorers as testimony.

Now it seemed the creature truly existed.

Not only could it take on another’s appearance, it could even perfectly imitate their voice and speech.

The earlier fluctuation of magic power had felt very similar to when he used the power of the Lord of the Labyrinth to create monsters.

Could it be that some mechanism within this secret chamber had used the gathered magic here to generate this Doppelganger on the spot?

But for what purpose?

After a brief moment of thought, Leon decided on the fastest way to distinguish the real from the fake.

He took out a test tube containing a sample of his own blood and activated his ability.

The blood immediately turned a dangerous purplish-red.

Both Renas revealed nervous expressions at the same time.

He first extended the test tube toward the Rena on the left. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

The intimidation of the Cursed Blood made her entire body stiffen, but she quickly controlled her expression and did not react too strongly.

Leon’s sharp gaze shifted to the Rena on the right as he extended the test tube toward her instead.

The expression on the right Rena’s face instantly shifted from tension to terror.

Under the instinctive fear that seized it at a fundamental level, its form visibly distorted.

"Fake!" Leon immediately drew his gun.

"Screeeaaahhh!!" The Doppelganger emitted a piercing shriek.

The features on its body suddenly faded, and it transformed into a black humanoid mass, like a three-dimensional shadow, before darting swiftly toward the wall.

At that moment, Rena controlled the Demon Wolf to pounce and pin the humanoid Doppelganger to the ground.

The Doppelganger did not struggle—it was restrained by Rena’s will.

When she first realized she had been copied, Rena had tried to control the Doppelganger, but it had resisted her.

Like the Demon Wolf, it had not been easily subdued.

However, the instant Leon exposed its flaw with the Cursed Blood, Rena felt her magic power resonate successfully with it.

Even so, she was still uneasy and chose to have the Demon Wolf pin it down first.

"What exactly is going on with this room?" Rena pressed a hand to her chest, still shaken.

"First it traps people inside, and then a Doppelganger appears out of nowhere?"

The Doppelganger had appeared out of thin air.

It was clearly generated automatically by the labyrinth, seemingly based on some mechanism of this secret chamber.

Leon silently observed the Doppelganger for a long time before finally speaking.

"I think I know what’s happening. This Doppelganger was probably meant to cooperate with the ritual."

If the ritual required to open the chamber was truly what Leon suspected, then if a single person entered and was trapped inside, how would they complete it?

The answer was this Doppelganger generated by the labyrinth.

It would automatically read the surface thoughts of the intruder and transform into the appearance of the person they secretly admired, then complete the ritual with them.

"What ritual?" Rena asked in confusion.

"That is—" Leon pondered for a long moment before finally sighing and revealing his speculation in full.

However, before he could finish, Rena had already frozen completely in place.