Mirror World
Creates an independent space completely separated from reality.
For an EX-rank artifact, the description was almost insultingly brief.
"An independent space completely separated from reality, huh."
I'd been fretting over finding a place big enough for four people — myself and my familiars — and now I wouldn't have to bother at all!
And since it was EX-rank, the scale had to be beyond imagination, right? Private rooms for me and every familiar, maybe even a whole guild building I could raise right here?
Of course, that was pure delusion — my happiness circuit spinning at full throttle.
"Oom-ha-ha."
The chat didn't trust my optimism one bit…
"I guarantee you, this artifact is insanely cracked!"
As someone who'd received an EX-rank class, I was sure of it. The simpler a status window's description, the more broken the ability turned out to be.
"You don't have to rush me — I was about to use it right now!"
Except… how exactly did you use this thing?
I turned it over in my hands and found a tiny ruby-colored gem set into it.
Press.
Squeezing the gem must have been the activation condition, because a status window popped up — and then—
Mirror World cannot be constructed inside the Tower.
"Ah."
Come to think of it, I had cleared the floor — and yet I still hadn't been returned to where I'd come from.
"Why haven't we been sent out yet?"
As if it had voice-recognized me, the system window scrambled to make excuses.
Due to a Distortion Phenomenon, dimensional synchronization is unstable. Transfer delayed.
Time remaining: 23 : 42
"What kind of crap is this…"
So that meant I had to spend a full day stranded on this empty island?
"See you all tomorrow!"
Sensing the stream was about to die a slow death, I fired off a hasty sign-off.
"A hidden piece? If I find one later, I'll turn the stream back on!"
I filed that interesting chat away and cut the broadcast.
The moment I went offline, my familiars each started prepping for the night.
"Princess, I shall catch us some fish."
Having already clocked our food shortage, Mitsu headed toward the beach.
"Th-then I'll go check if there's any fruit, yes I will."
Undtung, reading the room with exquisite care, bolted into the brush.
And Corneline…
"You're not doing anything?"
"Oom-ha-ha! An angel does not deign to perform such menial labor!"
She thumped her chest with one hand and kept going.
"It is only natural that mortals offer tribute to this angel!"
"You're a familiar too, you know."
Pretending not to hear me, Corneline was staring at the streaming camera with eyes full of curiosity.
"Never mind that — what in the world is that contraption?! You muttered to yourself and then strange writing flooded forth. How fascinating!"
Once I explained the concept of streaming, her eyes lit up like stars.
"So those numbers above… that is the count of humans watching us!?"
"That's right."
"I as well! This angel wishes to stream!"
A familiar actively begging to go live — that was a first.
When I asked why, the answer was pure Corneline.
"Mortals shall sing this angel's praises!"
Yeah, give her one day with chat and she'll rage-quit.
"Sure. Once we're home I'll buy you a phone, so go nuts."
"Oom-ha-ha! The whole world shall revere this angel!"
We waited for Mitsu and Undtung to return. Undtung showed up first, arms full of fruit.
"None of this is poisonous, right?"
"I already tried some myself — no problems, yes no problems."
Then Mitsu came back loaded with fish.
"I apologize for keeping the princess waiting so long."
"You're not gonna catch a cold…?"
"This body does not fall ill from such things. Please do not worry."
It was a single offhand remark from Undtung that set everything in motion.
"When I was looking for fruit, there was this weird statue-looking thing, yes there was."
I'd brought up hidden pieces over dinner, and it must have jogged his memory late.
"Right here, yes!"
With Undtung as our GPS, we found it in no time.
The statue looked astonishingly like Corneline.
"What's written on this?"
A single line of text ran along the base — not in any language of Earth.
"Oom-ha-ha! This angel shall read it for you!"
Corneline strode forward with absolute confidence and began reciting the inscription…
"O hero who slew the cursed angel and survived! Offer the angel's heart unto this statue and save the world…?"
"An angel's heart?"
I repeated the line and glanced sidelong at Corneline.
"……"
A brief silence settled over us.
"W-why has everyone gone so quiet!?"
Reading the room and clearly starting to tear up, Corneline stammered,
"W-wait! Surely you aren't planning to kill this angel!?"
Pushing the joke any further and she'd actually cry, so I smoothed things over.
"You're my familiar. I'm not going to kill you."
[You kept going even after the enhancement succeeded…]
Undtung shot me a look of pure injustice at that, but I deliberately ignored it.
"I believed in you! Truly, we are the greatest of friends!"
Anyway — this statue reeked of hidden-piece energy.
"I wonder if I can enhance this too?"
I stood in front of the statue, hesitated a beat, then brought my hammer down.
The statue has been destroyed.
A failure-to-enhance notice, and the statue crumbled.
"Huh?"
From the wreckage, a gem shaped like a miniature of the island itself went clattering out across the ground.
◈ Resonates with a specific artifact.
"What is this…"
I checked it with the Eye of the Unbeliever, but I still had no idea what it was actually for.
We wandered the rest of the island after that, found nothing else of note, and a full day passed.
Time remaining: 00 : 00
Synchronization complete. Attempting transfer to original dimension.
"Finally — home!"
It had even rained toward the end, but thanks to Corneline's barrier we'd slept just fine.
"How in the world do you live in a place like this!? It is far too cramped!"
She wasn't wrong. Cramming four people — familiars included — into a tiny one-room flat made the place feel impossibly tight.
"I do not mind a small room, Princess."
[I just want to be closer to the princess.]
I politely ignored Mitsu's nonsense and went live.
Just like on the island, I pressed the gem set into the mirror.
Constructing Mirror World.
In an instant, a massive silver mirror appeared inside the apartment.
Its surface rippled like a still lake, whispering an invitation to step through.
I swallowed hard and set my foot into the glass.
Transferring to Mirror World.
When I opened my eyes, a pure-white expanse stretched out with no ceiling and no walls in sight.
"Wild…"
Countless mirror portals floated freely in every direction.
"Princess, are you all right?"
"Whoa, it's insanely huge, yes it is!"
"At last — a space worthy of containing this angel!"
My familiars crossed over one after another, and the entrance sealed shut behind them.
Personal spaces are granted to beings who enter Mirror World.
Four of the countless mirrors began to glow at once.
One revealed a garden of drifting cherry blossoms, another a cabin on a vast prairie, and another a pure-white cathedral.
"It looks just like my old villa."
"Feels like coming home after ages, yes it does!"
"Oom-ha-ha! A cathedral for worshipping this angel!"
And the last mirror to change…
"Why is my room just a bigger version of the same thing!?"
My tiny one-room flat had simply ballooned into a much larger one-room flat.
"There's no way this is actually the end."
Four rooms and call it a day? Absolutely not!
As if answering my desperate wish, a system window appeared.
The Heart of the Comfortable Demonic Realm Island is resonating.
The island's heart I'd gotten from smashing the statue lit up and began to float.
A new space is being registered to Mirror World.
With the system's words, one of the countless mirror portals shattered, and the island's heart was absorbed into it.
Wooooom—
Beyond a mirror that had been reflecting nothing, a familiar landscape began to appear.
"Huh…?"
I carefully stepped into the mirror reflecting the island.
Sunlit sand and rolling waves — identical to the original.
Comfortable Island has been registered to Mirror World.
Currently registered spaces: 1 / No Limit
System windows kept rolling in, and only now did I truly feel why this thing was EX-rank.
By rescuing a sealed angel and repelling a monster assault, it has become a perfect resort.
Registration Effect: Generates 1 A-rank magic stone daily.
As long as I obtained each dimension's heart, I could keep registering more. No idea how you got one for every dimension — but the fact that I could keep expanding forever…
"This is the best!"
And if a daily A-rank magic stone was just the registration reward, then every dimension probably offered something different, right? A really good one might even drop artifact gacha tickets.
"Heh."
I was buzzing at the thought of pulling artifacts and enhancing them.
At least until a system window appeared out of nowhere.
You are the sole Awakened who has redeemed a Distorted Dimension.
Distorted Dimensions are now watching you.
What was this supposed to mean.
"…Huh?"
In other words—
I could keep challenging Distorted Towers with no cooldown?