Piercing the Mirror's Core
Mina, the Frost Sovereign, was taken aback by the sight of the space stretching and linking together as though panels were being stitched one after another. "Seok-jun! What about your mana?!" She asked, half-afraid his power had been severed, only for Seok-jun to answer with a rigid expression.
"I am still binding his legs properly." When she checked the King again, the rope formed from Seok-jun's mana remained firmly tied around his ankles. "This is certainly inconvenient. At this rate, fighting with my full strength will be impossible." The King, equally annoyed, glanced down at his own feet before lifting his gaze to Seok-jun. "Still, it's not enough to stop me from moving!"
The moment she saw him kick off the ground, Mina instinctively realized he was targeting Seok-jun. She raised her rapier and stepped in front of him. After all, while Seok-jun's mana was of the nullification type, his physical abilities were hardly different from an ordinary person's. But someone moved to block the path ahead of her.
-BOOM!
It was Lee Jun, as expected. He leaped directly into the King's charging path and halted his advance completely. "So that's how it is?" The King stared down at Lee Jun, who had stopped him by slamming his own body into the King's leg, then spoke as if something had clicked. "I found it strange from the start. Your movements are passable, but your speed is slow and even the copied power is lacking."
Even so, how could he possibly compete with me? "How fascinating! Now I can almost understand why those beings have taken an interest in all of you."
-BANG!
"...!" Lee Jun could no longer hold the King back. The King had kicked off the ground and leaped high into the air. By now he had planted his feet into the newly formed ceiling and stood upside down. "As I suspected, your power is closer to ours than to those of the imitators."
He studied the rope that clearly linked him to Seok-jun, then looked at them. "In that case, let us fight in our own way!" Without hesitation, he swung the sword in his hand toward empty space. The bizarre action left them puzzled for only a moment.
"Duck!" At Seok-jun's shout, a chilling sensation crawled over her skin. She bent low instantly, and a heavy gust swept just above her head. Confused, she looked toward where the wind had passed, but nothing was there. Then another icy premonition descended from above, and she threw herself aside.
-CRASH!
The ground where she had been standing caved in. At the same time, she glanced at the ceiling where the King stood and saw him reaching toward something. "Huh?!" Sensing danger, she brought her rapier forward, but something yanked her backward. Mina was pulled straight into Seok-jun's arms. Flustered, she noticed the rope that had been coiled around her shoulders and waist like a vest loosening, and realized he had been the one to pull her.
She had dropped her rapier in that instant of weakness, but Seok-jun had already caught it. She couldn't grasp the full details, yet she understood he had saved her. "Th-thank you."
Even so, Seok-jun remained silent, gripping the rapier and staring at it intently. As she began to wonder if another problem had arisen, the King's voice rang out.
"You've noticed already?" "It would be strange not to, after you practically introduced yourself." Seok-jun stopped examining the rapier and looked up at the King. The King had ceased his attacks. His glowing red eyes narrowed and flickered as he quietly observed them. "I see. Mirrors must be quite common in this world, then?"
"Mirror?" From their exchange, Mina finally understood how the King's attack from the ceiling had reached her. The space had suddenly expanded to such a vast scale that distinguishing floor from ceiling was difficult, which was why she had been slow to realize. If countless mirrors faced one another like in old elevators, this phenomenon could occur. Yet one difference was obvious.
"But we can't see our own reflections." The reason she hadn't immediately recognized it as a mirror was that, no matter where she looked, only the space had grown larger. Their reflected images were nowhere to be found, not even the King's own form. "A mirror created by mana wouldn't necessarily be identical to the ones we know, would it?"
After all, the phenomena hunters produced with mana often resembled the original while differing in countless subtle ways. "However, since every spot the King attacked corresponded to Mina's symmetrical position, I concluded there must be a shared rule." Only after hearing Seok-jun's explanation did Mina realize why the King on the ceiling had swung at empty air. In a normal mirror, that spot would have reflected her position.
But that realization brought an even greater problem. "Then we have no way to attack..." The King could strike them unilaterally, yet they possessed no means to reach him in return. "I will waste no more time on you!" "Eek?!" One-sided attacks were already hurtling toward them.
-CLANG! CLANG!
Fortunately, Lee Jun had pinpointed the trajectories this time. He charged in again and somehow deflected the invisible strikes, but it was clearly his limit. "There is one possibility," Seok-jun said just as she began to fear they had run out of options.
"What is it?" "A cutting strike." It was the same method Mina had been considering. The slash she had unleashed earlier, carrying half her mana, had failed to sever the core but had utterly shattered the ground beneath them. "But that would..." The problem was that it now meant expending every last drop of her remaining mana.
In other words, her mana would run completely dry. She would be unable to reinforce her body any further, leaving her with no follow-up. The safest approach was to locate and cut the true core, but cores were littered everywhere. With attacks flying the instant she stepped away from Lee Jun's protection, there was simply no time to search for the real one.
"However, you must prepare four swords in total, including this one." "Ah!" When Seok-jun showed her the rapier he held, Mina immediately grasped his intention. As a manufacturer, she could store mana within weapons like this. That much would allow her to keep some strength in reserve. "Then use whatever mana remains to destroy the ceiling."
"...Even so, I..." Mina hesitated. She wasn't sure the plan would work, and she doubted whether her slash could truly bring down that massive ceiling. Perhaps this was why Hanshin had never valued her highly. While gloomy thoughts weighed on her mind, she suddenly felt arms pulling her close and looked up in surprise.
"Trust me. Miss Mina, you are more than capable." The turquoise eyes that met hers were still clouded and sunken, yet they held steady without a trace of doubt. They carried an almost serene calm, like the quiet that envelops you when you sink beneath water. Facing that gaze, her heart, which had been racing from tension, began to beat with an entirely different emotion.
"All right. I just need to destroy that ceiling, correct?" "Yes." Following his instructions, Mina created three additional rapiers. "Then these..." "You should hold onto them, Miss Mina. Leave this single blade to me."
Confirming the rapier Seok-jun raised, she turned her eyes toward the ceiling. The King was still moving as though attacking the reflected image of Lee Jun. "It would be best to aim for the King himself, right?" "Yes. The closer the distance, the better." "Will it be safe for me to leave your side?" If the ceiling collapsed, debris would rain down. The risk of him being injured was high.
"There will be no problem." He answered calmly despite her worried look. In the end, she calculated where her distance to the King would be shortest. It was, of course, where Lee Jun was currently holding the line. "Then I'm going."
Mina began running toward Lee Jun's position, gathering mana into the rapier in her grip. She still lacked any real confidence that she could collapse that ceiling, yet she ran anyway. She couldn't easily explain it even to herself, but those turquoise eyes that had reflected her completely remained burned into her mind, pushing her forward.
"[Sword—]" The moment she reached Lee Jun's side and tried to call forth her power—
Sword Artist
"Did you think I wouldn't foresee this!" The King on the ceiling reached toward her symmetrical position. The mere sound stirred violent winds, and she felt the invisible hand closing in. Yet if she tried to block it, the slash meant for the ceiling would fly off course.
Gritting her teeth, Mina fixed her eyes on the ceiling. "Where do you think you're going!" "This bastard...!" Lee Jun, fighting beside her, blocked the unseen grasp hurtling toward her. The instant she saw it, Mina unleashed her cutting strike at the King above.
Her vision flashed pure white. -CRAAAAACK! A thunderous roar followed moments later. Mina watched the fractured ceiling begin to collapse and immediately looked back toward Seok-jun. The strangely durable Lee Jun might survive, but Seok-jun would surely be crushed beneath the falling debris.
Yet what she saw stopped her cold. "Seok-jun?!" "I was waiting for the exact moment you would be left alone." A crystalline giant now stood before Seok-jun. Mina tried to recall one of the spare rapiers to recover even a fraction of her mana and rush over, but someone seized her shoulder.
"So I was hated after all." Even with the giant before him, Seok-jun spoke casually. The King let out a low laugh. "No. Quite the opposite. I can overlook you blocking my interference, but you drove me into this corner." "You seem to have misjudged the players. Those two are the ones who drove you here."
"Yet you were the one who orchestrated it." The King pointed a sharp finger at Seok-jun as if to say he wouldn't tolerate feigned ignorance. "It was truly enjoyable. I never imagined I would have this much fun before facing Yu Seongjin again." He raised his fist. "Still, the time has come to end this."
Though his voice carried a note of regret as he spoke, the King suddenly froze. He had realized Seok-jun was smiling. "That's what I was about to say." "What are you talking about?" Then the King saw it—Seok-jun using the momentum of the rope to hurl the rapier behind him.
'Did he think he had located my core?' The King considered the core that would be reflected behind him. Yet even with that throw, it shouldn't reach far enough to matter. Come to think of it, his own comrades were positioned behind him now. "So you intend to order your comrades to destroy my core."
"Exactly." But the King knew the man had made a critical error. He alone knew the true location of his core. No matter how his comrades took the sword Seok-jun had sent and rushed to destroy it, it would be meaningless. "Then it is unfortunate. It seems your scheme ends here."
Destroying the core behind him would achieve nothing. The real core had been right in front of him the entire time. The King watched the sword flying as though toward the reflected core and swallowed a trace of disappointment, then realized something was wrong. 'Why is a sword thrown with so little force still flying?'
Moreover, this was his domain. Unless he willed it, nothing should reflect in the mirrors. In that case, that sword... 'Is it the real one, not a fake?!' The King tried to recall when the blade had flown in front of him and understood there had been only a single instant.
When Seok-jun had thrown the sword behind him. In that brief moment when his attention had been diverted, the blade had flown past his sight. "You continue to surprise me until the very end!" The King exclaimed in admiration, yet regret filled him. "But this is as far as you go."
For him, the core's position could be altered at will. He simply needed to turn. 'No, there was a second sword.' Believing the blade Seok-jun had thrown behind him had been passed to a comrade and hurled back, he refrained from turning fully. And that decision proved fatal.
"What?!" The moment he twisted sideways to shield the core from the incoming sword, he realized the truth. His core had been pierced. The King widened his eyes and scanned his surroundings. One. Two. Three...
"Oh? So this was what you were aiming for?" Three swords in total had impaled the cores reflected within the mirrors. Contrary to what he had assumed, no blades were embedded in the space behind him at all.