Chapter 301: The Darkness Mirror (Part 1)

The whole team moved as one. For the first time, they weren’t fighting to survive. They were fighting to advance, straight toward the Darkness Mirror.

The Light Sanctuary surged around them as Phanetium released another wave of golden-white energy, and the Miasma recoiled.

"Vedas!" Arthur shouted.

The Goblin King understood immediately and charged into the opening. "On it!"

King Maker flashed as a corrupted Beast lunged at him from the left. Vedas twisted around its attack and drove his spear through its chest, sending it crashing into another Beast behind it. "Path’s open!"

"Then don’t close it!" Mithra called, moving alongside him with her tails sweeping outward.

Three corrupted Beasts tried to hit them from the flank, but Melo’s mist rolled across the area, and the Beasts stumbled blindly through it. Mithra tore through all three before they could recover. "Left side clear!"

Athena raised Aegis. "Arthur, keep moving!"

Arthur nodded and slammed Phanetium into the ground.

BOOM!

Light exploded outward and cleared the road ahead, and Sun and Kong charged straight through the gap.

Sun grinned. "Now this feels familiar!"

Kong squeaked and punched a corrupted Beast aside.

"Don’t get too excited!" Athena shouted.

Sun laughed. "Too late!"

Above them, Athy swept through the sky and intercepted a flying Beast diving toward the center of the formation. The two collided in midair, and Athy kicked it away before turning straight toward the next. "Three above!"

"I see them," Athena said, raising her spear.

Aegis flashed, and one of them fell. Athy struck the second, and the third was taken down by a golden spear thrown by Vedas.

Arthur glanced back. "Nice."

Vedas smirked. "You sound surprised."

"I am."

"Rude."

Arthur laughed, and even Luna smiled from the center of the formation. "Keep moving!"

The group pushed forward, and the Darkness Mirror grew larger with every step. But the closer they came, the stranger the battlefield became. The Miasma thickened, the Light Sanctuary began to shrink, and Phanetium pulsed harder in Arthur’s hands. He could feel something pushing back through the hammer.

"Something’s fighting back," he said.

Athena looked toward the Mirror. "It’s the Miasma."

"No." Arthur shook his head. "Not exactly."

Luna looked at him. "What do you mean?"

Arthur stared ahead, struggling to find the words. "The closer we get, the more everything feels wrong."

Sun glanced around. "Wrong how?"

Arthur didn’t answer right away. The air felt heavy, not with pressure, but because something was missing. The wind had stopped, the trees had gone still, and even the Miasma seemed to have frozen in place.

Then he realized what it was. "We can’t hear anything."

Everyone froze. Sun opened his mouth, and nothing came out. Arthur could see his lips moving, but there was no sound at all. Mithra tried to speak, and Athena raised her voice, and there was still nothing.

Luna looked down at her compass, and her eyes widened. The needle was spinning wildly.

"What happened?" Arthur asked, and he couldn’t even hear himself.

Luna held up the compass. It was trembling violently, and then the needle stopped, pointing straight at the Darkness Mirror.

Arthur looked ahead. The black structure stood in the distance, completely silent and completely still, surrounded by Miasma so dense it looked almost solid. Purple-black waves pressed against the edge of the Light Sanctuary, and Phanetium’s golden glow flared in response.

Arthur tightened his grip. "Keep moving," he mouthed, and the team pushed on step by step.

The farther they went, the harder it was to use Reality Sight. When Arthur activated it, the world shifted and then immediately warped. He had used Reality Sight on ancient structures, on the Miasma, and on corrupted Beasts, and he had even used it to trace the flow of energy around the Mirrors. But now there was almost nothing to see. The Darkness Mirror was swallowing his vision.

Arthur pushed harder, and his eyes began to ache as the world flickered. For a fraction of a second, he saw the Miasma, thousands of streams, millions of them, all flowing toward the Mirror.

Then his Reality Sight collapsed, and he staggered.

Vedas caught his shoulder, shouting his name. Arthur couldn’t hear him, but he could read the worry on his face.

"I’m fine," Arthur mouthed.

Vedas frowned, and Arthur gave him a thumbs-up. Vedas looked completely unconvinced, and Arthur laughed without a sound. Even now, Vedas could tell when he was lying.

They kept going until the last corrupted Beast had disappeared behind them. No more attacks came, and nothing moved. The battlefield had gone completely empty, and the enormous black structure stood right in front of them.

Arthur stopped, and everyone stopped with him. For several seconds, nobody moved.

The Darkness Mirror was enormous, its surface darker than the night around it, and it reflected nothing, not even Arthur.

Luna slowly climbed down from Melo and walked forward, and her Light Mirror reacted immediately, white-gold energy surging from its surface.

Arthur caught her eye. "Careful," he mouthed.

Luna nodded and raised her Mirror, and the Darkness Mirror trembled in response.

Then the Fire Mirror answered, red light erupting from its surface. Arthur turned as the Water Mirror followed, spreading blue light across the battlefield, and then the Earth Mirror sent a deep golden-brown glow rolling across the ground. Finally, Luna’s Light Mirror blazed, and five different energies filled the darkness.

Arthur stared. The Mirrors were resonating.

Athena stepped forward and pointed from one Mirror to the next, and Arthur could read the word on her lips easily. Resonating. Mithra looked around in confusion, as if to ask why, and Athena only shook her head. Sun looked at the Darkness Mirror, then at Luna, and Luna shook her head too, her eyes fixed on the black surface. She had never seen anything like this.

Arthur slowly raised Phanetium, and Light and Creation energy spread through the ancient hammer. The Darkness Mirror responded, and the whole structure shook. There was no sound, but every one of them felt it.

The five Mirrors began pulsing together, fire, water, earth, light, and darkness, and the Miasma around them rose. It didn’t attack. It simply gathered around the structure.

Arthur’s Reality Sight flickered back to life on its own, and this time, something appeared. It wasn’t the Miasma. It was something beneath it, something deeper, something that seemed to exist behind the Mirror itself.

Arthur’s eyes widened.

Vedas looked at him, but Arthur was already stepping forward. Black ripples spread across the Mirror’s surface. Athena whispered something he couldn’t hear, and Luna looked frightened, but Arthur kept walking, one step and then another.

The closer he came, the stronger the feeling grew. It wasn’t danger, and it wasn’t hostility. It was something far more personal, something that made his chest tighten.

He stopped directly in front of the Mirror. The five Mirrors were shining so brightly now that the Darkness Region seemed to disappear beneath their light, and then a word appeared across the black surface.

Arthur didn’t recognize the language, but he understood it instantly.

Fear.

His expression changed.

Vedas started forward, and Arthur raised a hand without looking back. Vedas stopped. Arthur couldn’t explain why he had done it.

He simply knew. The Darkness Mirror wasn’t asking him a question. It was naming something, something inside him.

Arthur’s eyes narrowed. "Fear," he whispered, though no sound left his lips.

The moment he spoke the word, the Darkness Mirror activated.

All five Mirrors erupted at once, light, fire, water, earth, and darkness colliding in a single blinding burst. Arthur’s vision went white, then black.

The Light Sanctuary vanished, and Phanetium disappeared from his hands.

The road, the Miasma, and every one of his companions were gone, Vedas and Luna, Mithra and Athena, Sun and Kong, Athy and Melo, Star and Eden, all of them.

Arthur reached forward. "Wait!"

His voice vanished into the darkness, and then there was nothing, no sound, no light, and no world.

Only Arthur.

Alone.