Under the vast expanse of the shattered sky in the Mirror Realm, an injured young man with caramel skin rested on a branch of a dead tree. The light from the half moon bathed the entire realm in a faint crimson hue. Listening to the eerie quiet of this foreign land, he resisted the rest his body desperately needed. He had to remain vigilant at all costs—even if it meant sacrificing sleep.
Josh analyzed his situation, slowly shaking his head in dejection. Things weren't looking good. They were out of rations, and for some strange reason, they couldn't find the gateway back to Angel's Canyon. Unaware of how time worked in this land of endless night, he estimated they had been stuck for about half a month. Thinking back to how eager they'd been to find a gateway, and all the preparations they'd made before crossing, he cursed himself silently. No more bright ideas.
Resisting the urge to sigh, he focused his gaze on the shattered sky. A network of fissures stretched across the vast expanse, beyond which lay only a deep, swirling void. The void called to him—a quiet, almost familiar voice urging him to give in. It's alright, my little poet. You can rest now…
There, in front of him, stood a woman in her mid-forties, bearing an uncanny resemblance to him. She wore a long-sleeved, high-neck dark gray dress. Her eyes were full of compassion, and she gazed at him with a warm, familiar smile—a smile he had missed, especially on days like this when everything seemed to go wrong.
Tears began to fall unbidden from his eyes. "Mom…?"
His body moved on its own, reaching out to hug her. When their bodies met, a tremble ran through him—this was truly his mother. After a gentle pat on his head, she cupped his face in her hands and stared deep into his eyes.
"Look at you," she said, her voice soft. "You still have those mischievous eyes of yours, but they're hidden behind such deep darkness. What happened to you, my baby?"
Years of pent-up rage swelled inside Josh. His chest ached with all the unspoken feelings he had never had a chance to voice. But before he could speak, a sharp blow to his face brought him back to his senses. He turned, his gaze murderous, ready to lash out for ruining this long-awaited moment with his mother.
But when he saw her, his anger evaporated, replaced by confusion. "Oh, it's you… IT'S YOU!"
Another slap, powerful enough to send him tumbling from the tree, came quickly—but this time, Josh reacted just in time. The blow missed him by a hair.
"Are you trying to invite the Mirrored here?" she snapped. "Huh?"
Josh stared at her, bewildered. She had been the one to slap him, yet she blamed him for being loud? How angry did one have to be? But then, it clicked. He faced her, bowed deeply, and said, "Thank you for waking me up. If you hadn't arrived when you did, I'm sure I would've been dead by now."
The young woman regarded him for a moment before responding flatly, "Just be careful next time."
Nodding, Josh now took in her appearance. From the looks of it, she had fared far better against the Mirrored than he had. His respect for Rootworkers grew even more.
"And here I thought the empowered from Angel's Canyon were the strongest bunch around. You keep failing to meet my expectations, poet." Evelyn spoke with a mocking tone, disappointment in her gaze as she too studied his condition.
Josh tensed, his mind scrambling for a clever retort—but his thoughts were empty. He tried to speak, but his words came out jumbled. "Well, I was already out of origin—no, I mean spirit… What I'm trying to say is that we both have different strengths, and yours is… uh… fighting the Mirrored."
Evelyn shook her head and sat down. The branch they sat on was large enough to accommodate both of them and leave room for more. In fact, the entire realm was filled with strange, illogical phenomena Josh had long since given up on trying to understand. Yet, strangely, Evelyn seemed fascinated by it all. Josh couldn't count how many times he'd seen her smile in excitement when they discovered something new, her eyes lighting up like a child with a new toy. For him, though, it was the Mirrored he pursued—not the flora or fauna of this realm.
....
The Mirrored's Origins
The Mirrored first appeared at the end of the Great Beruvian Era. Their emergence was first recorded in the heart of Zebhanon, now known as Angel's Canyon. At the time, the world's technological progress was hitting a ceiling, hindered by a lack of resources and research materials. But then, Stephen Bellanour, the father of technology, revealed his plan to look beyond the realm for resources.
Thanks to the Book of Divine Providence, humanity was aware of other realms. It was written that the Creator had originally made the world as one, where all races lived in harmony. But when an Archangel sinned against the Creator by secretly breeding with mortals, the Creator, out of love, sealed the Archangel away. To prevent future chaos, the Creator parted with two gifts: the first was to give humanity the ability to defend against the children of this union, and the second was to divide the realms, separating them with a shard of eternity.
With the help of Graham, an empowered from House Walker, Stephen Bellanour sought to create a device to open a gate between realms using Walker's blood gifts of translocation, or "gate-jumping." After years of trial and error, they succeeded in opening the first gateway. But instead of crossing, a giant hand reached through the gate and pulled them in, destroying it in the process.
Years later, the first recorded appearance of the Mirrored was witnessed. They emerged from reflective surfaces, mimicking the appearance and abilities of the first person they saw. The world was nearly destroyed in a matter of months. The noble houses eventually deployed their empowered soldiers to fight back, but the Mirrored retreated—leaving the world in shambles. Humanity had to rebuild, unsure whether Stephen Bellanour was responsible for the invasion or not.
The Mirrored had left humanity with a deep wound—one that would take centuries to heal—and a lingering fear of their return. And after centuries of silence, they came back..
...
"What do you think is beyond the void?" Josh asked Evelyn, watching as she tended to his wounds, applying some kind of refreshing paste to his skin. She paused, then answered, "Oblivion."
She added, "It's best we don't concern ourselves with things beyond human comprehension. Up there lies a realm only gods dare to enter."
Josh nodded, but his curiosity only grew. Evelyn, sensing his thoughts, added a piece of wisdom: "If you continue staring into the void, be careful. It might stare back, and I won't be able to save you. I believe no one can… not even…"
Her voice trailed off, and Josh, lost in thought, didn't catch the rest.
Shaking off his thoughts about the void, Josh refocused. They were still searching for the gateway. Evelyn had marked its location, but right now, she couldn't pinpoint it. The terrain of the realm seemed to shift constantly. Sometimes, they'd travel east only to find themselves surrounded by the same dead forest they'd left behind in the west. It had started as a suspicion, but after marking most of the landmarks, Josh came to two conclusions: either the terrain was shifting, or they were walking in circles. Evelyn believed it was something far more mysterious—something tied to the very nature of this realm. And another thing he discovered is that they had only been running away from the lower ranks of mirrored.
Eve had made a discovery too, "I learned something while running from the Mirrored," she said, her voice solemn.
Josh stopped what he was doing and looked at her, his face tense.
"What did you discover?" he asked, his voice sharp with concern.Josh forced himself to sit up despite the pain.
"Remember the hanging tree?" Evelyn asked
He nodded. "Yes. What about it?"
"I think it's also a gateway. Have you noticed how the Mirrored always seem to come from its direction? I believe we're stuck in a looping dimensional pocket."
Josh's eyes widened. That would explain everything—the shifting terrain and why they hadn't encountered any high-ranking Mirrored. But it also meant they had failed to traverse the Mirror Realm.
"I know what you're thinking," Evelyn said, cutting through his thoughts. "No, we didn't fail. But that's not our concern right now. We need to find a way to draw the Mirrored away from the tree."
Josh sighed softly, the weight of their situation settling on him. The two of them fell silent, lost in thought.
The mirrored by the tree were in the hundreds, and they were also in their normal form. They possessed a human-like build but were much taller, with mirror-like eyes and crystalline skin. For the higher-ranking ones, horns protruded from their heads, but this was only their normal form. Their true forms, however, were another thing, and they differed with each one of them. What made them terrifying was their innate ability to copy the abilities of their enemies. Luckily, Josh and Eve were not "normal" by human standards.
Eve was a Rootworker, and her abilities and powerset did not follow the norm. She hadn't been born with them like those possessing blood gifts; hers was an ancient form of sorcery, rumored to have been lost thousands of years ago. The practitioners of it were all lost, that is, until Josh ran into Evelyn on one of his many expeditions.
As for Josh, he was a poet. He did not possess a blood gift since he wasn't a legitimate child. But he managed just fine without one. He had researched and developed ways to make himself strong, so many people confused his strong physical prowess for a blood gift. He had traveled the world in search of strength, and he found it—but he also found something else, which was why they were here.
"Did you catch that?" Eve asked, snapping Josh out of his thoughts.
"Huh? Catch what?"
She studied him for a few seconds before sighing, something she rarely did. "Is everything alright? You've been zoning out a lot recently."
"Huh, is that so? Well, it's this damned place. But never mind that, what were you saying?"
She shook her head and looked away. "Never mind."
Confused by her behavior, Josh turned his attention to his wound. Surprisingly, the paste had worked. He wasn't yet at a hundred percent, but his condition had improved. But the question lingered: how could they get the Mirrored out of the way?
[I could use that… but I promised my master I would never use it unless I'm in grave danger.]
"Eve, I know a way we can get them out of the way, but you're not going to like it."