"Theo!" Sam shouted. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Theo gasped out.
But he wasn't. With each breath, he sensed the Levia fizzling in his veins like static electricity. How much had he wasted?
"Theo!" Zenith's voice broke through the pounding in his head. "Don't worry about it – the usual spells are fine – ack!"
Just in time, he slashed in two the Phantom copy that had jumped onto his back. But another came fast after it, pulling him into a headlock that he barely managed to shake off.
Theo forced himself to his feet, fighting his twitching muscles. Dammit, what was he doing? He'd gotten ahead of himself and let Zenith down – let everyone down. No point in trying to show off. Just win by whatever means necessary.
Setting his jaw, Theo gathered the fitfully sparking Levia inside him. This time, he tried to cast a simpler diagram, but it took longer than expected.
Time he didn't have. A bunch of Ghost and Phantom copies had piled on top of Zenith, driving him to the ground. He thrashed and struggled, but only managed to throw off one before they pushed him back down.
More came leaping for Theo and Sam. Sam's shields flashed like strobe lights, but they wouldn't hold back the copies forever. Theo had to help her out – no, he had to help Zenith –
Gritting his teeth, Theo shoved down his rising panic. 'Concentrate!'
To his relief, gentle warmth flooded his veins and the diagram spread beneath his feet. A matching pink light glowed in the middle of the Ghost and Phantom pile and Zenith burst triumphantly free, blade pointed skyward.
As the copies swirled into smoke, more leaped in. But Zenith gave his sword a mighty swing and an arc of light swept from the blade, slashing through the nearby copies.
With them gone, Theo had a clear view of the thrall inside the mirror. He was still casting the spell, the diagram blazing beneath him while new reflections kept appearing in the mirrors.
Like this, Ghost and Phantom could keep creating new copies forever. "The thrall," Theo said to Sam. "We have to stop him."
"How?"
"I – " Theo hesitated. He'd managed to snap Sam out of her enthrallment, but only because they were best friends. What chance did he stand with this stranger?
No time to think before the reflections emerged from the mirrors and transformed into solid copies. That wasn't all. Floating up above, the real Ghost and Phantom clapped their hands.
"How are you enjoying the performance so far?" called Ghost. "Now it's time for the second act!"
"Take it away!" Phantom snapped his fingers.
The mirrors swept aside, revealing three doors floating in the darkness. All three of them slammed open at once.
The noise made Theo jump, but it didn't shock him half as much as what came prowling out of the doors. Monsters like giant wolves, but with bristling black quills instead of fur and bare skulls for heads, purple flames blazing inside their empty eye sockets. As they approached, their jaws gaped almost a hundred eighty degrees, revealing dagger-like teeth.
"What's a show without some animal tricks to liven it up?" Ghost winked.
"What the hell?" Sam shook her fists. "You guys are fighting dirty!"
"Like we care!" Phantom did a backflip midair. "We're soldiers of the Infernal Legion. We'll do whatever it takes to accomplish our mission."
With that, the monsters lunged.
"Zenith!" Theo screamed. He summoned a shield dome around Zenith, knocking back the copies crowding the knight.
Only for a sudden wave of dizziness to send him to his knees. The shield sputtered into nothing.
A monster took the chance to charge at Zenith. Zenith swung his shield in front, barely managing to block its fangs. Theo's head spun. A spell, a spell –
What was wrong with him? Had the backfired elemental spell taken that huge of a toll?
No. If so, then it was all his fault Zenith was struggling now. If he hadn't been so impatient, so arrogant –
A scream nearby pierced through his thoughts. He saw a flash of mint green light, then a Phantom copy lurched back from Sam. But the shield was flickering and she was breathing hard, and when the copy dove at it again, it shattered into sparks.
"No! Sam!" Theo reached out, but couldn't hope to get there in time.
Shrieking incoherently, Sam jabbed her fists. To Theo's amazement, the blow caught the copy square in the stomach and sent it flying, smoke trailing in its wake.
So human attacks could destroy them. That didn't change the fact that there were dozens of them and only two of Theo and Sam. And with the wizards occupied, Zenith was stuck fighting the monsters on his own.
A monster lunged at him before he could dodge, jaws wide open. Theo's heart flipped upside down. Snarling, Zenith shoved his shield forward and the monster's jaws closed around it with a horrid crunch.
Relief flooded Theo when Zenith rolled out of the way. But now he'd lost his immediate defense. Which meant Theo had to step up, do his part. Ignore the dizziness, this weakness that was all his own fault.
Summoning all his Levia, he cast a blade-sharpening spell. Surprise lurched through him when another circle flared beneath Zenith too and washed the blade in mint green light along with pink. Whipping around, Theo saw Sam standing atop a diagram of her own.
Right. With two wizards and only one familiar, it made sense for both of them to give everything they had to Zenith. Zenith took it right in stride. Blade flashing, he sliced clean through the monster's neck. Its skull hit the ground with a tremendous crash and Zenith dove to retrieve his shield.
They weren't out of the woods yet. Two new monsters closed in on Zenith, snarling and snapping their jaws. Theo didn't have time to shout a warning before a Phantom copy barreled into him and slammed him to the floor with a bone-thudding impact.
The sharpening spell went up in sparks around him. And he couldn't cast it again, not with the Phantom copy pinning him down, grinding his back into the cold hard ground. Yelling and thrashing, Theo threw wild punches and kicks, but the pressure didn't relent one ounce.
Then he heard an earsplitting crack. The next thing he knew, the copy tumbled off him and dissolved into smoke. Sam extended a hand to him, and Theo didn't waste any time clinging onto it for dear life.
Sam had stopped her aikido lessons a few years ago, but it looked like she'd retained a thing or two. Which meant Theo was the dead weight here, didn't it? No fighting skill of his own, not enough Levia to spare.
"Together," he gasped, tugging on Sam's arm. "That's our only chance. A strengthening spell, at the same time."
"Got it." Sam nodded.
Tightening his grip on her hand, Theo reached for his frantically churning Levia. When the diagram burst beneath Sam's feet, her Levia washed over him like a wave of cool water, and that calmed him enough to gather the power he needed.
His dawn light surged. As the same diagram appeared beneath him, a pink and green glow exploded from within the writhing mob of monsters and copies. Copies scattered like rag dolls before dissolving into smoke, and Zenith himself emerged. With a tremendous swing of his sword, he slashed off the head of the nearest monster.
Theo's heart leaped. Maybe – just maybe –
But he already knew this spell wouldn't last long. Even with Sam's Levia shoring it up, his dawn light was weak and flickering. 'Just hang on a little longer,' he told himself furiously, gritting his teeth.
Still aglow, Zenith lunged at Ghost and Phantom. Ghost jumped out of the way, but Phantom couldn't escape in time. The wave of light from the sword knocked him off the mirror he'd been perched on. Slashing his sword, Zenith fired another blast of light that struck Phantom directly in the chest.
As Phantom hit the ground, the diagram crackled beneath Theo before shattering into sparks. He fell heavily to his knees. But it didn't matter, they'd gotten one of the demons….
Yet something seemed strange. Rather than blood, black smoke billowed from the wound in Phantom's chest. And it seemed to be spreading across his entire body – no, he was turning into it.
Just like...a copy.
When the smoke drifted away, all the other Phantom copies vanished too. Then a scream pierced the air.
Ghost clutched her face, her eyes bugging. "You bastards! After I put so much effort into that copy! He was almost as cute as the real thing!"
So Phantom had been a copy all along? Then where was the real one?
When Zenith's Levia flashed inside him, Theo realized. He must be keeping Darian, Meg, and Lodo occupied.
"What kind of audience interrupts the show like that?" Ghost continued raging. "I'll teach you a lesson you won't forget, you ungrateful little shits!"
A new diagram spread beneath the thrall, larger and more complex. The doors flung open again, and out came three more monsters...no, six. Meanwhile, Ghost copies emerged one after another from the mirrors.
Theo and Sam slowly backed off. All traces of triumph from defeating Phantom had vanished. No, it looked like their situation had only gotten worse.
Wait a minute. Beneath Ghost's shrieks and the monsters' snarls, a new sound thrummed in Theo's bones. Deep and resonant, it filled his head with a startlingly familiar rumble.
Then a quieter noise cut through the rumble. A thin, sharp noise, like glass shattering. Theo stared with widening eyes as a crack began to spread across the mirror directly in front of him.
A wavering silhouette appeared inside the mirror, slowly becoming clearer as if it was rising from the depths. Then something poked out from the center of the crack.
A spearpoint, long and slender and caked with what looked suspiciously liked dried bloodstains. That wasn't all. Through the mirror, Theo made out a whip-thin build, angular plates of armor.
His breath caught. No way. What were the chances?