[Mirror's POV]
Mirror knew it.
She was losing.
Despite reaching a ridiculous level of power through sheer willpower... Death seemed closer and closer with each spells she used.
She hit her limit, she went past it, yet... Lotus was still stronger. Much stronger.
She should have foresaw that. Her visions, back then, screamed at her that fighting this guy was a bad idea.
Maybe Mirror should have listened.
"Something. Wrong. Human ?"
Using her Soulblade, Mirror parried another attack.
She threw a quick glance in Alice's direction. She seemed... worried.
"...Won't lose."
"Hum ?"
"I won't lose."
At this point, Mirror knew she had no chance. Yet, she refused to give up.
The Two Soulblades clashed. However, Lotus was much stronger, and Mirror was pushed aside.
At this point, there was but one thought in Mirror's head: "how do I kill this guy ?"
There seemed to be no solution.
Yet, Mirror continued her hopeless battle.
A minute passed, then, two.
Somehow, Mirror was surviving the terrible fight.
The thirteen years old girl was somehow resisting.
That seemed to somewhat impress Lotus.
"Human. Worthy. I will now. Show you. My full power."
Suddenly, Brandon's body... changed, and his Soulblade dissapeared.
Vines were coming out from inside Stranger's son, splattering the black blood of the giant everywhere. The vines seemed to have minds of their own, and immedatiatly attacked Mirror.
What once looked like an absurbly tall man was now just a bizarre green and black mound of dreadful flora, with a mind of its own.
Mirror felt it. This was the ultimate form of her opponent.
She was against something strong enough to wipe out the population of an entire city.
She had no chances of winning.
"Give up. Mirror."
"Never !"
For Alice, she would win despite the odds.
Alice was the only person that mattered to Mirror. At this point, a bound stronger than anything linked the two girls.
Alice and Mirror were basically the same person, except for their personality. Most people would have been disturbed by understanding they were just a pale copy of another person, but Mirror was different.
She was different... because she knew how miserable Alice's life was before the Forest of Glass. She knew how messed up her family was, especially her mother and her half-brother. Mirror never talked about that subject with Alice, because she knew her friend wanted to forget everything about that past, even if it was impossible.
Because of that knowledge, Mirror liked Alice. It was difficult to hate a decent person when you knew basically everything about them.
Alice... was Mirror's only friend, just like Mirror was Alice's only friend.
For Mirror, Alice's life was as important as her own life.
If not more.
That's why Mirror simply couldn't lose. If she did, both her and Alice would die. She could not allow thar.
Winning was her only choice.
"Yes... that's right... I can't lose..."
Mirror cut one of the vine coming towards her, and avoided another that would have peirced her skull.
As she did, she felt her body grow older and older.
She was probably around her late fities now...
As she was selling more and more part of her soul to keep up with her terrifying opponent, she was slowly approaching death.
To put it simply, she was on a timer.
Against a stronger opponent.
How could she win ? What did she have that her opponent lacked ?
The answer was simple.
She had a Name. Well, kind of, but it was better than nothing.
Mirror used the Seer's sixth sense with as much focus as she could muster.
She rushed towards Lotus, which attacked her from a large distance.
She dodged her opponents seemingly unavoidable attacks, and struck with her Soulblade
Only, this time, her Soulblade wasn't white. It was red like fire.
And when she struck, there was fire everywhere. It was as if she just used a flamethrower.
Nah... it was more like she used one hundred of these things. Her own skin was burning (which was a minor injury at this point ), and a smell of charried plants was assaulting her nose.
This was Mirror ultimate attempt. If Lotus survived all of that, the fight was likely over.
But Mirror really hoped that this was going to work.
After all, Lotus was some kind of plant, and fire was great against plants, right ?
Mirror screamed:
"DIE ! DIE ! DIE ! FUCKER, DIE !"
Profiting off the fact that Lotus wasn't retaliating, Mirror struck again with her blazing Soulblade. And she even struck a third time.
With each strike, Mirror's age was going up by almost ten years. The risk of dying because of her own sorcery was going up, but Mirror didn't care. She only cared about one thing: killing Lotus.
For a short and blissful moment, Mirror thought she won. She thought she managed to do the impossible with these three strikes. She thought that Lotus was dead, that she found his weakness.
However, despite Mirror's fury, Lotus was still alive. More than that, he wasn't even that badly hurt. Sure, some of his vines were now burnt, but he had plenty of other.
Mirror desesperatly tried to avoid the relatation, and blocked some vines with her Soulblade. She jumped to avoid another, and even cut one of the vines.
But it wasn't enough. Against Lotus, nothing ever seemed to be enough.
One of the vines somehow circled around her arm.
That wasn't good...
Mirror tried to break free, but Lotus had already reinforced this vine with the same kind of sorcery Mirror used to augment her strenght, making her attempt a failure.
Her arm was grabbed by the vine.
Mirror felt it.
Defeat.
At this point, the fight was over. In a way, it had been over when her red Soulblade failed to kill her opponent.
Using the vine that was wrapped around her arm Lotus put Mirror high in the air, before slamming her body against the floor, breaking every bones in Mirror's body that wasn't already broken.
Mirror didn't even feel pain. That's how bad her injuries were.
She coughed blood.
Lotus used another vine, and something akin to a Soulblade appeared at the tip of that vine.
When Mirror understood what Lotus was doing, it was way too late.
She couldn't have done a lot about it, anyway.
Both of her legs were abruptly severed by the murderous vine. It didn't even hurt that much.
Now, she would die of blood loss in a couple of minutes.
Mirror eyes teared up. Not because of the pain, but because of something else.
"Sorry Alice... I was... too weak...."