Chapter 66: The Mirror of the Abyss

"You brought an entire civilization’s worth of warfare, technology, and knowledge with you. It’s as if... you don’t belong to this world at all."

Her words hung heavily in the air between them.

Around them, the roar of gunfire, the crackle of fire magic, and the screeches of dying monsters continued to shake the earth, but on the small stone platform, the silence between Ren and Evelyn was absolute.

Ren’s brow creased into a tight, strained pinch. His mouth opened slightly as he scrambled for a plausible lie, a distraction—anything to diffuse the razor-sharp scrutiny in her sapphire eyes.

Before he could utter a word, a sharp whistle cut through the atmospheric static.

WHOOSH!

A concentrated sphere of volatile, violet energy tore through the smoke, hurtling straight toward the platform at blinding speed.

Ren’s vision locked onto the approaching orb. Instinct took over before his brain could process the threat. He jerked his upper body backward, the crackling kinetic heat of the projectile missing his tip of nose by less than an inch.

The purple orb slammed directly into the inner masonry of Lumiria’s gatehouse.

BOOM!

The explosive shockwave vibrated through the stone ramparts, causing the military recruits line on the upper battlements to stumble and lose their footing for several critical seconds.

Simultaneously, three smaller violet projectiles split from the main trajectory, targeting the rest of the group. Evelyn reacted without hesitation, drawing her blue mana blade in a fluid upward stroke that cleaved her incoming orb in half, dispersing the volatile magic into harmless sparks. Elysia flared her emerald aura, stepping light-footedly aside to let the blast detonate harmlessly against the stone railing, while Kael executed a clean, disciplined backstep, his frost blade deflecting the residual concussive blast.

The four of them snapped their attention toward the source of the ambush—the wide, paved avenue leading down from the palace courtyard.

Standing atop a half-crumbled decorative archway was a woman wearing an off-shoulder black gown lined with deep purple trim. Her long, midnight-black hair faded into a vibrant violet gradient at the tips, framing a face of exquisite, predatory beauty. Her glowing purple eyes narrowed into a dark, playful crescent as she looked down at them, utterly indifferent to the chaotic sea of screaming citizens fleeing down the lower streets behind her.

"Hey there, everyone," she purred, her melodic voice carrying effortlessly over the din of battle. "Long time no see."

Evelyn’s body went completely rigid.

Her knuckles turned stark white against the hilt of her sword, her posture locking into a lethal, battle-ready stance. The atmosphere around her dropped into a suffocating freeze.

"Velista!" Evelyn spat out, her voice dripping with pure venom.

Ren stared at the intruder, his mind racing to cross-reference the unfamiliar figure with the historical reports he had parsed since arriving in this realm. Velista...?

Memory clicked into place like a heavy latch. This was the dark entity Evelyn had fought inside Vora’s fractured pocket dimension—the supreme architect of the Heretical Dark Faction, the force responsible for unleashing the Aberrant plague across the continent.

Kael slid into a low combat guard, his frost longsword humming with pale blue light. "Stay alert," he warned through grit teeth. "The gate is under siege by the swarm, and now their leader is standing in our rear. We’re pinned."

Velista stepped off the high archway, descending through the air with light, weightless grace before her heels tapped softly onto the stone cobble. She walked toward them with slow, deliberate steps, swaying her hips with a teasing, patronizing smile.

"Oh, Princess Evelyn..." Velista hummed, resting a pale hand against her cheek as her eyes sparkled with cruel amusement. "I missed you so much. Didn’t you miss me even a little bit?"

A brilliant coat of dark blue mana erupted from Evelyn’s body, scorching the stone beneath her boots. She didn’t waste breath on banter. She tilted her head slightly toward Kael, Elysia, and Ren, her voice sharp and absolute.

"Prepare yourselves," Evelyn whispered under her breath. "This is our only chance. We capture her here, or we die."

Beside her, Kael and Elysia gave single, firm nods.

Ren’s hand instinctively crept into the inner pocket of his coat, his fingers wrapping around the cold, textured grip of his semi-automatic sidearm. Yet, even as he readied his weapon, a heavy knot tied itself in his stomach.

’Capture her?’ Ren analyzed her posture with a cold, calculating eye. Velista wasn’t displaying a single shred of tension. She wasn’t scanning for escape routes, nor was she drawing a weapon. She moved with the supreme, unbothered confidence of an apex predator dropping in to inspect a cage. A entity like that didn’t just present herself on the front lines by accident.

Velista let out a low, musical laugh that echoed across the battlements.

"Honestly, Evelyn," Velista purred, shaking her head in mock disappointment. "Can’t you ever greet a guest with a little hospitality? Must you always leap straight to brandishing steel?"

In response, Evelyn materialized a second broadsword of solid blue mana in her left hand. Green wind currents wrapped tightly around Elysia’s forearms, ready to launch high-density magic blades. Kael shifted his footing, preparing to vault over the railing to block her path.

"I don’t offer hospitality to the monster responsible for burning my home," Evelyn said, her voice dropping into an icy register. She leveled both broadswords directly at Velista’s neck. "You are the reason this entire world is bleeding."

Velista’s playful expression smoothed out, her glowing purple eyes dimming into a cold, serious focus. She ignored the three blades pointed at her chest, shifting her gaze past Evelyn to lock onto Ren.

"Evelyn, please," Velista said, her tone suddenly devoid of mock affection. "Why don’t we negotiate like reasonable adults? I came here for one thing, and one thing only. Give it to me, and I will pull the swarm back beyond your borders."

Ren’s breath caught as her gaze pinned him to the spot.

A sudden, sharp prickle of ice ran down the back of his neck. The heavy pressure of her purple eyes felt sickeningly familiar—not from a historical document or a tactical report, but from a memory buried deep in his own past.

’Wait... why does her face look so familiar...?’

Ren searched his mind, tracing back to the very first day he had woken up in this shattered world.

He remembered standing in the narrow, junk-strewn alleys of the border town after helping Elysia recover the stolen purple crystal. He remembered agreeing to help her rescue Evelyn from Vora’s pocket realm, provided she showed him the local scrap yards. And he remembered the faint, unsettling sensation of being watched—a pair of cold, glowing purple eyes peering at him from the dark shadows between two ruined buildings, tracking his every move before vanishing into thin air.

The realization hit him like a physical blow.

The entity that had been stalking him from the very second he landed in this world wasn’t a random dark scout. It was Velista herself.

Ren’s chest tightened, his breathing growing shallow as cold sweat slicked his palms inside his coat pockets.

Velista’s lips curved into a dark, knowing smile as she watched the color drain from his face. She raised a slender, pale finger, pointing it directly at Ren’s chest.

"Princess Evelyn," Velista announced, her voice echoing clearly over the roar of artillery. "I will end this war today. I will recall every Aberrant on this continent and leave your little sanctuary in peace... if you hand him over to me."

The battlements fell into a sudden, stunned silence.

Evelyn, Kael, and Elysia froze, their eyes widening in utter disbelief as they stared at the finger pointed at Ren.

"What...?" Elysia gasped, her green mana flickering erratically around her hands.

Evelyn’s brow creased into a tight, murderous pinch, her blades trembling slightly as her mind struggled to process the demand. "What nonsense are you talking about...?"

Ren stood rooted to the stone floor, his heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped beast. "Why me...?" he forced out, his voice raspy. "What could you possibly want with me?"

Velista let out a soft, melodious chuckle that carried a chilling edge.

"Isn’t it obvious, Ren?" Velista murmured, her glowing eyes locking onto his with an intensity that seemed to pierce straight through his soul. "Because you are me... and I am you."

The statement landed like a thunderclap.

Ren took an involuntary step back, his heel catching against a raised cobblestone as his breath escaped him in a sharp, ragged gasp. The world around him seemed to tilt. A violent, nauseating ringing filled his ears, drowning out the gunfire and the sirens.

Evelyn and Kael whipped their heads toward Ren, their expressions turning completely rigid with shock and horror. Elysia instinctively took a step away from him, her eyes wide with unmitigated panic.

"No... That’s impossible..." Ren muttered, his voice shaking violently.

He thrust his hands into his hair, gripping his dark locks tightly as a severe, splitting headache flared behind his eyes. He shook his head back and forth in frantic denial.

Ever since he had arrived in this world, he had assumed his unique status—the System interface, the ability to synthesize modern technology out of thin air, the dark divine presence of Nyx lingering in his soul—was simply an arbitrary cheat granted to a displaced soul.

He had never considered the horrific alternative: that the vessel he currently inhabited was fundamentally intertwined with the dark sovereign who had brought this planet to the brink of absolute extinction.

"What... what is happening here...?" Ren choked out, his chest heaving as he stared at his own trembling, bloodless hands.

Elysia backed away another foot, her eyes searching his face as if looking at a stranger. "Ren... is she telling the truth? Are you... part of her?"

Evelyn didn’t answer. She stood frozen between Ren and Velista, her dark blue broadswords lowered slightly, her jaw tight as her gaze darted back and forth between the two, completely paralyzed by the revelation.

Velista merely folded her arms across her chest, watching Ren’s psychological collapse with a quiet, cruel satisfaction, her smirk widening into the dark shadow of the apocalypse.