Outside the mirror.
"Ian! Ian, wake up!"
Gaga frantically beat its wings on Ian’s shoulder, pecking hard at his ear with its beak and tearing at his hair with its claws.
But Ian didn’t react at all.
His body was as stiff as a statue. His pupils were dilated, and his breathing was so faint it had almost stopped.
Only the cold sweat constantly beading on his forehead and the slight tremble of his fingertips proved that his consciousness was still struggling violently somewhere.
’What do I do... What do I do?!’
Gaga’s eyes turned red with anxiety.
It looked up at the shattered, floating mirror surfaces all around, the ghostly light in its heterochromatic eyes flaring to its absolute limit.
Shadow Messenger—activated at full Power!
The surrounding Shadow Energy surged like boiling water, forming hundreds of pitch-black tentacles that lashed viciously at the mirrors.
SIZZLE SIZZLE SIZZLE SIZZLE!
The tentacles struck the mirrors but only kicked up ripples, as if hitting the surface of water.
Physical attacks were useless.
Something on the level of a Rule could not be broken by brute force.
’I’m the smartest Raven... There has to be a way...’
Gaga’s little mind raced.
It suddenly remembered something Ian had taught it.
When faced with a Rule trap you can’t overpower, look for a "loophole," for the "dissonance."
’The Mirror Demon can imitate everything about Ian, but what can’t it imitate?’
’Witchcraft? Witchcraft Tools, his body... it seems to be able to copy them all.’
’What about me?’
’I’m deeply bound to Ian’s Soul, but our Souls... don’t share the same origin!’
Gaga’s eyes suddenly lit up.
It stopped attacking the mirrors. With a single flap of its wings, it flew directly in front of Ian.
Its tiny beak was almost touching the tip of Ian’s nose.
Soul Link: Deep Resonance!
This wasn’t a simple call, but a resonance that "slammed" its entire Soul into his!
"Ian! Can you hear me!"
"They’re all fake! I’m right here!"
"I’m right here...!"
Gaga’s voice exploded on the spiritual plane.
All its anxiety, anger, fear... and a certain bond rooted deep in its Soul, erupted with a BOOM.
It remembered leaving its flock, meeting Ian for the first time, and the warmth of being hidden inside his shirt.
It remembered the safety of home, the taste of the fish Ian would roast...
It remembered how, when Ian was focused on Alchemy, it would secretly save the best Blood Essence for him.
It remembered just before they entered the ruins, when Ian had ruffled the feathers on its little head and said, "We’ll make it back alive."
"You promised me..."
Gaga’s voice choked with sobs, its spiritual fluctuations trembling violently.
"You said you’d show me the pinnacle of the Wizard World... You said we’d live for a long, long time together..."
"You can’t leave me..."
"Ian... come back..."
"Please... come back..."
Tears rolled from its heterochromatic eyes, dripping onto Ian’s cold cheek.
Ian stood in a pure white Void.
Across from him, the expression on the mirrored Ian had completely twisted.
The mask of temptation peeled away, revealing the hideous nature beneath.
It was a monster cobbled together from all of Ian’s fears and desires.
"You dare... refuse me!" the mirrored Ian roared in fury.
"You can’t give me what I want," Ian said calmly.
Just then, he heard it.
A call, extremely faint, as if coming from the bottom of a faraway body of water.
’Ian... come back...’
It was Gaga.
Its voice was tinged with tears, with desperation, with the instinctive pull of a Soul partner.
The mirrored Ian’s expression changed.
"Noise!" It waved a hand, trying to block it out. "A mere Summoned Demon..."
But Ian’s eyes lit up. "You can’t copy Gaga."
He stared at the mirrored Ian, speaking one word at a time.
"Because the bond between you and me... is fake."
"You’re just a reflection in a mirror, whereas Gaga..."
Ian raised his right hand. The pale golden points of Crystalization in his palm began to spin at an unprecedented speed.
"...Is my true partner."
The mirrored Ian, enraged, raised both its hands at the same time.
A Singularity of Gravity in its left hand, a Frost Ash Beam in its right, and the Entropy Change Domain unfurling around it.
The two of them attacked at once.
Pale purple beams collided. The ear-piercing shriek of ice and fire annihilating each other tore through the silence.
The Singularities of Gravity negated each other in mid-air, the hum of warped space sounding like a giant beast grinding its teeth.
The Entropy Change Domains began to erode one another. The temperature leaped madly between extreme cold and scorching heat as the Rules descended into Chaos.
An Energy storm exploded in the pure white space, a frantic clash of ice, fire, and gravitational turbulence.
The mirror image had perfectly copied everything about Ian.
His combat experience, his Witchcraft combos, even the hint of ruthlessness in his eyes.
There was just one thing it could not copy.
The panel!
It could not copy the feedback provided by the panel.
’Now!’
A golden light exploded in Ian’s eyes, and the tip of his right finger twitched slightly.
The mirror image reacted instantly, condensing a Gravity Collapse Ball in its left hand and charging a Frost Ash Beam in its right.
But Ian’s true killing move... was at its feet.
HUMMM!
The pure white ground beneath the mirror image’s feet suddenly collapsed.
A black dot the size of a Rice Grain, planted there at some unknown moment, abruptly expanded!
Gravity Collapse Ball—Delayed Trigger!
The mirror image’s face changed drastically as its body was violently dragged downward by a terrifying Gravity.
It frantically channeled its Spiritual Power, trying to break free, but that single moment of delay... was enough.
Ian pointed with his right index finger.
Thirty-six pale golden threads shot out like a torrential downpour!
They precisely pierced the mirror image’s thirty-six Energy Nodes.
After being tempered through numerous Limit-Breaking sessions via the panel, finding weaknesses had become second nature to Ian.
PFFT-PFFT-PFFT-PFFT-PFFT!
The threads pierced through. The mirror image’s body shook violently, and the Energy flowing around it instantly fell into disarray.
Its Entropy Change Domain collapsed, its Singularity of Gravity spun out of control, and the Frost Ash Beam exploded in its palm!
"You..."
The mirror image’s eyes widened, genuine terror showing on its face for the first time.
"How could you..."
"Because you aren’t me."
Ian’s voice was ice-cold. He raised his left hand, curling his fingers into a loose fist.
Above his palm, a third Rice Grain-sized black dot appeared.
This time, it wasn’t a miniature version.
It was the full-power version, with a hundred-meter collapse radius... a full-force detonation!
"Goodbye."
He closed his fist.
HUMMM!!!
The pure white space trembled violently.
Centered on the mirror image, everything within a hundred-meter radius began to collapse inward.
The mirror image shrieked madly, trying to escape the gravitational pull.
But with its Energy Nodes destroyed, it couldn’t even muster a basic defense.
Its body cracked inch by inch like shattered porcelain.
The sound of shattering bones, tearing flesh, and the inhuman shriek of a disintegrating Soul...
All sound was devoured by the black hole.
When the collapse ended, all that remained where the mirror image had been was a palm-sized, shattered piece of a mirror.
Its surface was covered in web-like cracks, and a pale silver liquid flowed within it, like solidified moonlight.
The pure white space began to collapse.
The walls around them flowed and peeled away like melting wax.
The light of reality seeped in through the cracks.
...
"Ian!"
Gaga’s sharp cry exploded next to his ear.
Ian’s eyes snapped open. Blood seeped from his eyes, nose, and ears as the world before him blurred and swayed.
He fell to one knee, bracing himself with his right hand on the ground, his fingertips digging into a crevice in the Rock just to keep from collapsing.
A metallic sweetness welled up in his throat, but he forced it back down.
"Ian! You’re awake! You’re awake!"
Gaga threw itself onto his shoulder, rubbing its little head forcefully against his cheek, its feathers still stained with tears.
Ian gasped for breath, raising a hand to stroke Gaga. Its touch was warm.
A real sensation.
"I... I’m back."
His voice was hoarse, like sandpaper.
’This enemy was on an extremely high level, at least that of a Level Two Wizard, and its attack methods were bizarre.’
’The panel... It didn’t appear this time.’
’Did it think I wasn’t in a life-or-death crisis?’
Looking up, he saw the surrounding, floating Mirror Fragments disintegrating and dissipating one by one.
Like Ashes scattered by the wind, the Mirror Demon Domain... had been shattered.
The passageway returned to its original appearance.
The faint, dark blue glow on the walls still flowed evenly, but that bizarre "sense of delay" was gone.
"Just now... just now you suddenly froze..."
Gaga’s voice was tinged with tears.
"I called and called but you didn’t react, so I desperately used a Shadow Storm to smash those mirrors, and I pecked at them with my beak..."
It extended its right wing, showing a tiny crack on the tip of its beak.
"But those mirrors are so hard! I couldn’t break them at all..."
"Gaga, it’s all thanks to you. You did a great job."
Ian ruffled the feathers on its little head and slowly pushed himself up, using the wall for support.
His whole body ached with exhaustion, and his Sea of Spirit felt completely drained.
But...
He closed his eyes, looking inward at his Sea of Spirit.
Those pale golden points of Crystalization were now spinning at an unprecedented speed.
Each point of light was more solid, more brilliant.
As they spun, a faint, silvery Starlight seemed to seep out from the depths of the light points, as if about to condense into a more stable form.
’I’m... closer to becoming a Level Two Wizard,’ Ian muttered to himself.
This trial from the Mirror Demon, though perilous, was also an ultimate tempering of his spirit.
Facing three layers of fear, conquering the temptations of desire, shattering the me in the mirror...
A crack had been forcefully chiseled into the very walls of his psyche.
He opened his eyes, his gaze falling to the ground.
Lying there was a palm-sized, shattered piece of a mirror.
A pale silver liquid flowed over its surface, and a pattern like a Star Map could be faintly seen circulating within.
Ian bent down and picked it up.
It was cool to the touch, feeling less like a physical object and more like some kind of solidified "Rule."
’Mirror Fragments?’
’It must be a Rule Crystal dropped from the core of the Mirror Demon Domain, containing properties that resist spiritual pollution.’
’Good stuff.’
He carefully put the fragment away and scanned his surroundings again.
After the Mirror Demon Domain dissipated, a recess was faintly visible deeper in the passageway.
Ian walked over.
Embedded in the inner wall of the recess was a small, fist-sized, dark blue crystal.
The crystal’s surface was as smooth as a mirror, and countless tiny points of light flowed slowly within it.
Like a miniature starry sky.
’Looks like a... crystal of Memory Material?’
Ian reached out to touch it.
The instant his fingertip touched the crystal’s surface, a fragment of pure, vast knowledge from the Star Spirit Race flooded his consciousness.
Star Core Condensation Technique - Fragment.
How to make the Sea of Spirit resonate with the stars, how to draw Energy from the starry sky to temper the Soul, how to construct a stable Star Core model...
Although they were just fragmented scraps of information, they instantly clarified Ian’s understanding of the Starry Sky Festival.
’So... a Star Core isn’t just a simple Energy Crystal, but a manifestation of a "Rule"...’
He murmured, a flash of understanding in his eyes.
This crystal was no less valuable than a Tier Two Witchcraft Artifact.
"Ian, your eyes..." Gaga said suddenly in a small voice.
"What’s wrong?"
"There are stars shining in them."
Ian froze, then walked over to a mirror surface that hadn’t completely dissipated yet.
In the reflection, deep within his pupils, a faint, silvery starlight could be seen swirling.
It was very faint, but it was definitely there.
It was an imprint of resonance, created after the Star Spirit Race’s knowledge fragment merged with his Sea of Spirit.
"Not a bad haul."
He put away the Memory Material crystal and turned to look deeper into the passageway.
The Mirror Demon’s trial was over, but the road ahead was still unknown.
But at this moment, his mind felt clearer than ever before.
Those fears, desires, and uncertainties...
The Mirror Demon had forced them all out into the open, to be examined and shattered one by one.
’What I seek... is the freedom of destiny, not mere Power.’
He muttered to himself, as if swearing an oath.
Gaga landed on his shoulder, its little eyes sparkling.
"Ian, what you said was really profound... but I think you’ve gotten even stronger!"
"You think so?"
"Yeah! Even your eyes are different. Like... like a sharpened knife, brighter and keener!"
Ian smiled and ruffled its little head.
"Let’s go. We still have a long way ahead of us."