Chapter 239
Chapter 239: The Mirror
The endless darkness surrounding them was like a thick curtain, rapidly splitting apart at the seams.
Light seized the opportunity to seep through, driving away the remaining black.
Swoosh!
The pitch-black rushed toward the center, returning to the strange smile on Weija's face.
The shadow beneath Weija began to recede, then, in the blink of an eye, reverted to a simple crow silhouette.
The mirror entity's eyes were now utterly dim, sealed tightly shut.
The mirror's surface shattered completely, fracturing outward from its very center, cracks spreading across the mirror's entire body like ripples through water.
Crack!
The fissure-covered surface flickered with a flash of light, then peeled away piece by piece, crashing down onto the desiccated earth.
Soon, as though its soul had been stripped away, all that remained was a solitary empty frame, standing upright upon the ground.
Viktor stood with both hands in his pockets, watching it all unfold with calm indifference.
Weija stood perched on his shoulder, tittering away:
"As expected—you still can't manage without me."
Viktor couldn't be bothered to respond.
Even without Weija, he'd already had a method prepared to defeat the Mirror Demon.
It was simply that the most effective method was Weija.
Once the mirror was completely stripped of its light, it would become a fish on the chopping block.
So Viktor simply let Weija have its moment of satisfaction—no point dampening its spirits.
In passing, he spoke up:
"Just now—where did you go?"
Weija flapped its wings, speaking with a grin from nearby:
"To check on your little girlfriend."
"Incidentally, she misses you quite a bit."
Viktor was unsurprised by this.
The Mirror Demon possessed an ability: it could erase the memories others held of whoever was trapped inside the mirror.
But this power could be weakened by all manner of factors.
For instance, the stronger one was compared to the mirror, the less effect it would have.
Even virtually no effect at all.
Yet the Mirror Demon was level fifty, after all—few could surpass it.
Of course, the key point was that the Mirror Demon's ability could only affect the memories of those in the real world; it could not alter reality itself.
Events that had genuinely occurred—history that had truly been made—the Mirror Demon could not rewrite.
Nor could it influence the memories of everyone.
Passersby, for instance.
Passersby had no connection to Viktor whatsoever, and without someone bringing him up, they would never spontaneously think of his name.
Those truly affected were the ones who knew Viktor well—or even intimately.
They would forget his name, forget memories tied to him.
But the moment someone had the chance to remind them, and they thought carefully about it, they would notice the gaps in their memory.
Because in reality, the traces of the person trapped in the mirror still existed.
And those traces were like puzzle pieces of memory, allowing those with missing recollections to feel as though something had been filled back into their souls.
Gwen had the longsword and armor Viktor had given her, and she almost never parted from them.
So from the very moment Viktor entered the mirror, she would have felt a strange and unsettling dissonance between her memory and her lived experience.
Thinking of this, Viktor found it mildly amusing.
"Then let's settle this quickly."
"We should leave here soon as well."
The words had barely fallen when a flash of white erupted around them, spreading from beneath Viktor's feet and sweeping over the entire world.
The white was like a vast ocean, submerging everything completely within it.
Everything began to blur and dissolve, flickering endlessly as digital-thread-like afterimages.
Viktor stood amidst the chaotic world, facing the shattered empty frame:
"Still going to keep hiding?"
"Marei Dim?"
At that moment, within the hollow frame, a ripple stirred, gradually spreading across the void where the mirror's surface had been.
Marei Dim wrenched half a body out from within the ripple.
Thwack! The entire body was pulled free, dropping onto the ground.
Its body shimmered like a layer of luminous liquid, flickering endlessly beneath the boundless white.
Its form gradually lost color, until every facial feature became impossible to discern.
Even the organs exposed to the outside slowly withered and disappeared.
Like a simple mannequin—no gender could be determined.
That was right. This thing—this was Marei Dim's true appearance.
In reality, it was nothing like any beautiful young man.
The story of the beautiful young man was indeed true—only the protagonist of that story was not Marei Dim.
He had been a wretched soul.
He had truly fallen in love with his own reflection in the mirror—or rather, with the body Marei Dim had conjured forth from within the mirror.
And so he had been consumed by the Mirror Demon—by Marei Dim, the monster dwelling within the glass.
He had ultimately become sustenance for Marei Dim.
The passage of time had been so great that even the Mirror Demon had gradually forgotten that story.
Then, from within this transparent figure, an ethereal voice emerged.
Its voice seemed to blend male and female tones together, making it impossible to distinguish:
"I had been somewhat puzzled, Viktor."
The soft body writhed upright from the ground, its faceless side oriented toward Viktor.
The translucent liquid form began to contort, a body extending outward from within, pushing through the transparent outer skin and splitting into tendrils that swallowed the liquid mass entirely.
Swiftly, through the twisting motion, a woman Viktor found familiar took shape before him.
It was Leah.
Marei Dim had taken on Leah's appearance.
"The Clavena family—a cursed bloodline—has never once produced a Mage."
'Leah' cradled her arms beneath her chest, her gaze eerily cold:
"You—are you truly Viktor, or..."
"...a monster that has taken possession of Viktor's body?"
As she spoke, her eyes locked unwaveringly onto the black crow perched on Viktor's shoulder.
Viktor was mildly surprised.
It seemed the Mirror Demon before him understood far more about the Clavenase than he had anticipated.
Small wonder—otherwise, it never should have been sealed on Clavena territory in the first place.
At that thought, Viktor offered a faint smile, speaking to Marei Dim:
"How did you figure it out?"
At that, 'Leah' swayed her hips and drew close to Viktor's side.
She extended a hand, resting it on his shoulder.
'Leah's' body pressed near, an arm curling around Viktor's cheek.
Her alluring eyes swept him up and down as her fingers traced a path from his chest downward.
"I cannot peer into your soul."
"So tell me—your true identity."
'Leah' brought her lips to Viktor's ear, softly exhaling:
"I can help you."
"Fulfill everything you desire."
Suddenly, 'Leah' smiled faintly. Her body was enveloped in liquid once more, and another skin was draped over it—she became Gwen.
"I can transform into anything you wish."
'Gwen' crooked a finger and tilted Viktor's chin upward.
"Whatever you want. Whatever you need."
Viktor stared at 'Gwen' with a blank expression.
She cast a seductive glance his way, then her hair gradually shifted to gold.
She turned, and became Erika's likeness.
"Isn't this everything you love?"
The words had barely fallen when Viktor suddenly shot out a hand and seized 'Erika' by the throat.
"Ngh..."
She felt a wave of suffocation, her eyes reflecting a pitiful, helpless quality.
But quickly, that helplessness shifted into mockery.
"Can you really bring yourself to kill me?"
'Erika's' golden hair gradually darkened to pitch-black, her eyes taking on a cold and severe air.
A black coat draped itself over her form.
She transformed—into Viktor's own likeness.
The voice slid through a transition as well, shifting from feminine tones to something cold and detached.
Viktor reached out, gripping 'Viktor' by the throat, lifting him high into the air.
"One warning."
"Don't casually transform into the people around me."
He swung his arm and flung 'Viktor' with a whoosh, hurling him directly into the white wall.
The force was extraordinary—enough to slam 'Viktor' bodily into the surface with crushing weight.
Pain radiated through 'Viktor's' entire body.
His strength was simply far too immense.
Immense to a degree that didn't even seem fitting for a Mage.
Yet it amounted to nothing more than pain.
"Even so—it still isn't enough to move your heart?"
'Viktor' clawed his way painfully back up from the ground. His gaze met Viktor's equally indifferent eyes, and then he suddenly laughed.
"As expected, Viktor."
"Just like that story that described me."
"You—love only yourself."
In the next instant, 'Viktor' rose again, reshaping into the form of an extraordinarily beautiful woman.
She was incomparably beautiful.
Beautiful to a degree of such utter perfection that not a single flaw could be found.
She wore a top hat, carried a walking cane, and bore a thoroughly elegant demeanor.
A woman, unmistakably—yet elegant as a gentleman.
The woman gave Viktor a slight bow:
"Allow me to reintroduce myself."
"I am Marei Dim—though of course, you may simply call me Marei."
"As you can see, I have no gender to speak of."
She raised her head, regarding Viktor with a pair of deeply captivating eyes.
Or rather—regarding the strange crow perched on Viktor's shoulder.
"I am willing to give my life for you, to walk through the darkness on your behalf."
Almost the instant the words fell.
The pitch-black crow on Viktor's shoulder revealed an expression terrifyingly human in its quality—a smile.
Countless frenzied, chaotic black tentacles erupted wildly from behind Weija.
They streaked across the white ground at high speed, closing in on Marei Dim.
And gradually coiled around its body.
The crow's single eye glimmered with faint blue light.
That dread—like the darkness of the deep ocean—extended endlessly toward the pristine white sky, as though it could saturate everything completely.
The voice was profoundly deep and dissonant. Within this world swallowed by darkness, it was distinctly, bone-chillingly unsettling:
"Swear on your life."
"We have a deal."