The impossible had just happened. The cold, lifeless glass of the mirror rippled like dark water, and the entity trapped within it—a perfect, flawless duplicate of the Divine Sovereign—rolled its shoulders with uncanny fluidity, completely breaking synchronization with its master.
"Phew, I thought you will never discover it." Her reflection said, stretching her body as if she had been cramped inside a tiny box for centuries.
Mirabella froze, the chill of the void seeping into her bones. The sheer unnaturalness of the sight triggered every combat instinct she possessed.
"Copying your every move is a very difficult job, I pity your shadow." She muttered, staring at Mirabella’s stunned expression with a terrifyingly casual, sentient awareness.
Before Mirabella could even summon her aura to shatter the glass, the entity within raised a perfectly manicured hand.
"Don’t worry, I am the eighth round."
[DING!]
A massive, glowing blue one-hour timer abruptly appeared in the empty air right before them. The numbers instantly started counting downward, ticking away the seconds of Mirabella’s life with absolute, mechanical indifference.
"That is this round timer, if you fail, it’s normal--"
"--Dying isn’t normal!" Mirabella cut her off, her voice slicing through the void like a sharpened blade. Her blue eyes narrowed, her mind already calculating a thousand different ways to dismantle the anomaly before her.
The reflection merely smiled, a knowing, dangerous curve of the lips that mirrored Mirabella’s own predatory expressions perfectly.
"Yes, that is one of the reasons you’re searching for those gemstones? The red gemstone on you helps suppress it, right?"
The void seemed to completely stop. A heavy, suffocating silence dropped over the arena.
"You?! Where did you hear that from?!!" Miranda asked, a bit taken aback. Her heart pounded violently against her ribs. This was an absolute, heavily guarded secret—a fatal flaw in her that only she and Cupcake knew about.
"Because I am you." The reflection answered with a smug smirk, reveling in the psychological upper hand, and quickly continued:
"Let’s get back to business! This round is very easy, what you have to do is ask me any question, if I correctly answer three questions, you lose, and die. You can start." The Reflection said, her beautiful smile still plastered on her lips like a permanent fixture.
Mirabella didn’t immediately respond. She stood perfectly still, her calculating gaze locked onto her own doppelganger. She stared at herself for a long moment, completely lost in thought, dissecting the absolute rules the entity had just laid out.
’Ask any question? Let’s test a theory.’ Mirabella nodded her head, a cold light flickering in her eyes, and asked:
"Why did I give myself to that man?" She asked, her tone entirely flat, betraying absolutely no emotion.
The entity in the glass leaned forward slightly, highly amused by the probe.
"So sneaky." The Reflection chuckled, a dark, melodic sound, and answered:
"When you entered the dungeon, which lead you to the red Gemstone, you triggered a curse... If you can’t suppress it, the curse will rupture and you will vomit blood. This curse eats away your energy, so you sometimes sealed your powers... As why, you did it with him, well, because you not only want to ease the curse with his pure darkness energy, you want to find out something important, I guessed you already figured that out already."
Mirabella’s breath caught slightly in her throat.
"Strange... I am the only one who knows this."
Mirabella held her jaw, her brilliant mind spinning rapidly, lost in deep thought. Everything the reflection had just spoken was the absolute, undeniable truth. In this chaotic, mutated world, spiritual energies were heavily polarized. She had initially followed Lian mainly because he possessed a rare, unadulterated pure darkness energy, a direct counter-element which could actively help to suppress the volatile curse ravaging her internal core...
But her mind had already drawn the line. She didn’t plan to do it with him ever again, which was another massive, underlying reason she was in such a desperate rush to acquire the remaining Gemstones. Only the complete set of gemstones could rewrite her biology and make her completely immune to the decaying curse.
And regarding Lian’s true, terrifying identity... She had flawlessly figured it out the very next morning. No matter how meticulously he hid his energy signature, the fundamental fabric of his soul was entirely different from ordinary, mortal humans.
"So what do you plan to do with him? You already know Lian is the Great King, the one who marked you without your permission. Will you kill him? I am curious." The reflection asked, leaning closer to the barrier of the glass, her eyes practically glowing with a morbid, predatory hunger.
"Lian isn’t evil, I can sense that... In fact, he is one of the purest soul I have met... Yes, his hand isn’t actually clean, but he’s like Carl." Mirabella answered calmly. She understood the gray morality of the universe better than anyone; true power always demanded blood.
"Oh? Are you thinking of giving him an opportunity?" The reflection taunted, tilting its head.
"Not a chance, I only used him once to ease the curse. It won’t happen the second time, besides, the body here isn’t his main body, if he tries anything funny, I will simply kill him." Mirabella stated with absolute, chilling certainty. Her killing intent flared, proving she was entirely capable of destroying the Great King’s copy if he stepped out of line.
"Hmm... Okay, that’s understandable." The Reflection slowly nodded her head, entirely satisfied with the ruthless pragmatism of the answer.
"And you." Mirabella called out suddenly, her voice dropping a terrifying octave, staring directly at her Reflection.
The trap had been set.
"You knew the answer to this question mainly because you and I share the same memories. No matter what I asked, you will always get the right answer... Right?" She asked.
Her reflection blinked, momentarily caught off guard by the shift in momentum, then chuckled softly, realizing the bait had been swallowed.
"So that’s why you asked that specific question."
Mirabella shrugged nonchalantly, her confidence returning as she took absolute control of the board.
"The only person who knows the answer to that is standing before you... For you to know why I did it, means you can share my memories."
"Okay, what is your second question." The entity prompted, bracing itself for the ultimate test.
Miranda slowly exhaled, her expression shifting into one of absolute, untouchable arrogance, and started:
"How can I pass this eighth round?"
"....?!!"
The smug smile instantly vanished from the entity’s face. The Reflection was completely stunned. She blinked rapidly, her mind aggressively running through the entirety of Mirabella’s vast, complex memories in her head, searching frantically for a solution that simply did not exist. Her perfect face twisted into a deep, frustrated frown.
"How come you have no idea about it?!!" She yelled at her, her voice cracking as the paradox took hold.
"How would I know when you didn’t say it? You only said this round is easy, and if you truthfully answer three questions, I will die. You didn’t say, I would win." Mirabella answered in a flat, devastating tone, entirely unbothered.
"You?! You’re actually using my own words and lack of information against me?!" The reflection screamed, banging its ethereal fists against the inside of the glass.
"What do you expect? I kind of know everything in my head, but I know nothing about this test, it’s the perfect question to ask. Besides, if you do know the answer, it will also be helpful... Go ahead, I am waiting." Mirabella crossed her arms, watching her own copy self-destruct under the weight of an unsolvable paradox.
"You!" The Reflection sighed heavily, the fight completely draining from its form. Lowering her gaze in ultimate defeat, she confessed:
"I don’t know the answer."
CRACK!
Mirabella watched in mild surprise as a massive, jagged fissure suddenly appeared right down the center of the mirror. In the next second, the entire heavy wooden frame and ancient glass cracked, and violently shattered into thousands of glowing, dissipating particles of starlight.
"Eighth round completed."
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