Chapter 153 ‒ Shattered Truth
Chapter 153 ‒ Shattered Truth
The air trembled.
With a deafening crack of light, Miridiel vanished — and reappeared less than a breath away.
[Miridiel Activated Skill: Dash]
Tyler barely had time to flinch. Miridiel stood right in front of him now, so close that Tyler could see his own stunned reflection warped across the mirror-polished surface of the scythe’s blade.
A dark gleam rippled across it — black, swirling energy devouring the light.
[Miridiel Activated Skill: Annihilation]
Tyler’s heart lurched. If that hits me… it’s over.
Instinct screamed to dodge — to leap, roll, do anything — but Miridiel didn’t swing. He didn’t even blink.
Instead, he lifted one leg and drove his heel squarely into Tyler’s ribs.
The impact landed with a bone-snapping thud, a cruel explosion of force that launched Tyler off his feet. He hurled backward, a blur of red and black, before crashing into a mirrored pillar. Glass exploded in all directions. The sound was thunder incarnate — a thousand shards scattering like stars, raining around him in a kaleidoscope of falling light.
“Do not… wo-rry,” Miridiel said, his voice velvet wrapped in thorns, “I will… not kill you… just yet. No, no… I will… peel a-way your stren-gthhh… strip you bare… and crush you pieeece by pieeece. You will be-eg me… for death… looong be-fore I grant it.”
Blood dripped from the corner of Tyler’s mouth as he struggled upright, limbs trembling. Around him, his reflection glared back from every angle — a thousand fractured versions of his pain.
He wiped the blood from his jaw.
Enough games.
A flash of white light surged around his head as he switched hats — the pointed cap of the White Wizard settling over his brow.
[PE: 100/100]
“Fine,” he muttered, wiping blood from his lip. “You want serious? Let’s get serious.”
He narrowed his stance, breathing hard. Sparks danced along the blade of his scythe.
[Activated Skill: Soul Bind]
Sigils blazed to life beneath Miridiel’s feet — runes carved in emerald flame. Ethereal chains erupted upward, lashing around his limbs like spectres from the abyss. They locked in place with a deafening snap, binding him mid-air.
[Activated Skill: Ram]
Tyler launched forward like a crimson thunderbolt, boots leaving sparks in his wake. His body was tucked low, scythe pointed forward like a spear, the floor blurring beneath him.
Miridiel’s grin deepened, baring white teeth.
“There it is…” he purred. “The panic. The last flai-ling… lunge of… a cor-nered rat.”
[Miridiel Activated Skill: Poison Mist]
A wave of green mist exploded from his cloak, spreading like wildfire.
Tyler had no time to pivot. Locked in, he crashed into Miridiel at full force. The chains shattered on impact, the shockwave rocking the entire chamber — but the price was immediate.
The poisonous fog coiled around Tyler like living smog. His lungs clamped shut. Veins turned to ice.
[Status: Affected by [Poison Mist] — Target loses 20 HP every second. Duration: 00:00:20]
He staggered backward, coughing hard, blood splashing against the pristine white marble.
“Not this again…” he rasped, voice strangled with fury.
[Activated Skill: Undying Tenacity]
A golden pulse erupted from his core, slowing the poison to a crawl, halting its lethal march before it could reach his heart.
As the mist faded, he lifted his gaze — but the binds were gone.
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So was Miridiel.
Only his own mirrored selves stared back — fractured, broken, scattered like ghosts behind glass.
Tyler spun, searching — the mirrored walls returned only flickers of himself, bloodied and confused, standing amid chaos and broken glass.
Then — a heavy thud.
Something slammed into his stomach — unseen, unrelenting — and Tyler flew backward like a ragdoll.
He struck another mirror, and the wall exploded into splinters, cracks racing outward like white lightning. He dropped to one knee, groaning.
Where… where did he go?
He stared at the mirror across from him.
No reflection.
Then — a whisper:
“This is star-ting to get boooring.”
The air shimmered behind him. Miridiel emerged, growing taller, his earlier shrunk form expanding back to his full, towering stature.
He stepped into the dim light again, face etched with disdain, cloak trailing behind like smoke.
Tyler clenched his jaw.
[Activated Skill: Raven’s Eye]
His left eye burned crimson. Threads of red lightning crackled across his vision, peeling back the surface of the world. Every heartbeat, every twitch of movement sharpened to impossible clarity.
But when he looked at Miridiel…
Nothing.
A blank white canvas. No nodes. No pulses. No flickers.
No weakness.
A perfect silhouette.
Tyler’s breath caught — but then his gaze drifted, almost absently, to a nearby mirror.
And there — in the reflection — he saw himself.
Outlined in red.
The collarbone. Behind the knees. The base of the neck. The lower ribs.
Weakness points.
If he is me…
A sudden wave of realization slammed into him.
Then maybe… he shares the same vulnerabilities I do.
He turned, imprinting the positions in his mind. Every line. Every pulse.
Miridiel raised an eyebrow.
“What now? Are you pray-ing? Accep-ting death… at last?”
Tyler didn’t answer.
[Activated Skill: Lightning Bolt]
Six bolts screamed from his palm, aimed not blindly — but with surgical precision. Each bolt arced with unnatural sharpness, seeking the very places he’d seen on his own reflection.
Zzzt! Zzzt! Zzzt!
The bolts struck — collar, ribs, knees — lightning exploded across Miridiel’s body in a surge of electric fury.
He staggered.
Just half a step.
[Miridiel HP: 998799/999999]
Miridiel looked down at the faint scorch marks on his armour — thin trails of char and sizzling embers still hissing on the white steel. A tendril of smoke curled from his shoulder. He lifted one hand and brushed it off with an almost delicate motion, as if swatting away dust.
Tyler’s heart skipped. Did it work?
For a fleeting second, he thought he saw something change — a flicker in Miridiel’s expression, the tiniest wince.
But then the smile returned. Wider this time.
“That… stung.” His voice was quiet. “So here… al-low me to re-turn the favouurrr.”
[Miridiel Activated Skill: Ink Cloud]
A black fog erupted from his chest — dense and cold, swallowing all light. The chamber dimmed into near-night, mirrors darkening into warped shadows.
The fog thickened, warping the chamber into a hall of shadows. Reflections twisted, some echoing his stance — others warping into monstrous proportions.
Then came the footsteps. Three sets. Heavy, deliberate. Echoing from different sides.
Tyler pivoted, heart pounding. For a heartbeat, he swore he saw five or six outlines moving through the mist — distorted shapes rippling across mirror panels.
Then — three solid forms stepped out of the dark.
Identical faces. Identical scythes.
All grinning.
[Miridiel Clone, Level 3333 x3]
“Here we go…” Tyler muttered.
[Activated Skill: Gigantify]
A blast of light erupted beneath him. Tyler’s body grew — twenty times — armour surging outward, runes igniting. His foot rose, massive and heavy.
Then he stomped.
CRACK!
Two clones shattered beneath the force, their bodies breaking into obsidian shards and dissolving into silver embers.
But the third clone leapt — impossibly fast — over his foot, flipped mid-air, and slammed into Tyler’s chest.
The impact toppled him like a felled tower.
BOOM.
The world tipped sideways. Tyler hit the ground with the force of a collapsing colossus. His breath fled from his lungs in a single, crushing exhale.
Fractures split the marbled floor beneath him, racing outward in ripples. It felt like the whole chamber shuddered — like the space itself was buckling.
His vision blurred. For a moment, he couldn’t tell where his body ended and the reflections began.
Tyler’s left hand crashed into the base of the massive, ornate mirror — the very one Miridiel had stepped through during their first encounter. The frame trembled violently from the impact.
And then—
“No! Not the mirror!”
The surviving clone shrieked.
Tyler’s eyes snapped toward the glass. A jagged crack now snaked across the surface — a silver fracture that split his reflection down the middle.
So… it does matter.
The skill wore off. Light flashed, and Tyler’s body shrank back to normal size, smoke hissing from his armour.
The clone surged toward him — blade poised to finish him.
Tyler raised his arm.
[Activated Skill: Absolute Defence]
A golden energy flickered into place — the scythe bounced harmlessly off.
Tyler’s free hand surged with energy.
[Activated Skill: Spider Web]
[Activated Skill: Soul Bind]
Web-like strands erupted outward, latching onto the clone’s limbs — chains followed, slamming it into the floor, pinning it down.
Tyler stumbled back, chest heaving.
He glanced at the mirror. The trembling had stopped, but that cry — that panic — it had been real.
The mirror… that’s it! That’s the source. The key. But why… why just the three of them? Where is the origi—
The thought cut off.
Shhk.
A sharp, icy pain stabbed through his side.
He looked down.
The blade was already inside him.
Black energy pulsed through the wound — cold, endless.
Blood leaked down his armour, hissing against the heat.
Behind him, Miridiel stood. Smiling. Whispering.
“So care-less again, little… rat.” His voice was softer now — almost affectionate.
“I’ve let you dance long enough… Watch-ed you strug-gle. Watch-ed you hope. But ho-ope… is a dise-ase. And I… am the cure.”
The blade sank deeper.
Tyler’s fingers curled around empty air.
Miridiel leaned close.
Tyler’s knees buckled. His vision dimmed around the edges. The blade pulsed again. His body was failing — not just from pain… but from despair.
“Now… die.”
[Miridiel Activated Skill: Annihilation]