The Mirage Palace trembled with violence. Krad's copies swarmed him like locusts, each one moving with his exact rhythm, his exact timing. He blocked left, a copy anticipated and struck from the right. He dodged backward, another copy was already there, fist cocked for a devastating blow to his kidney.
[ Damage Received: 280 ]
[ Health Points: 38% ]
Blood filled his mouth.
Thirty meters away, Mist was a whirlwind of gray mist and flashing steel. His sword technique, Waltz Splash, allowed him to fight in multiple positions simultaneously, his body flickering between locations too fast for the eye to follow... but even that wasn't enough.
"Seven-Fold Strike!" Mist's blade carved through three copies, their bodies dissipating into silvery mist. But Han simply waved her hand, and the mirrors reconstructed them instantly, pulling them back from nothingness as if rewinding time itself.
"Pointless," Han observed from her throne, tone clinical. "For every reflection you destroy, I simply create more. This domain is sustained by my existence. As long as I live, you fight an infinite army."
[ System Alpha: Mist health declining. Current status: 34%. Multiple internal injuries detected. ]
[ System Buddy: This is really bad, Krad! The Captain can't keep this up much longer! ]
Mist knew it too. He'd been in impossible battles before—fought demon lords, conquered S-Rank dungeons, survived encounters that should've killed him a hundred times over. But this? Fighting perfect copies that knew every technique he'd perfected over twenty years of combat?This might actually be the end.
He risked a glance at Krad, saw the kid struggling against his own reflections. Saw the determination burning in those golden eyes even as blood streamed down his face.
"Dammit. I'm supposed to protect him."
A Mist-copy's sword pierced his shoulder.
[ Critical Hit! ]
Mist gritted his teeth against the pain, spinning to decapitate the copy in one fluid motion. But five more converged, their blades forming a cage of steel around him.
---
On the opposite side of the throne room, Dani and Kora fought back-to-back, their synergy the only thing keeping them alive.
"Tracking Bind!" Dani's magic lashed out, spectral chains wrapping around three of her copies. For a heartbeat, they held.
Then the copies used the exact same spell, their chains intercepting hers and turning her own magic into a prison that snapped around her wrists.
"No!" Dani gasped as she was yanked off her feet.
"Radiant Heal!" Kora thrust her staff forward, golden light washing over Dani and shattering the magical bindings. But the effort cost her, her mana reserves were nearly depleted, and four Kora-copies were already preparing the same spell, ready to overwhelm her defenses.
"We can't keep this up," Kora whispered, her voice cracking. "Dani, we're going to die here."
Dani's jaw tightened. "Then we die fighting."
But even as she said it, doubt crept into her heart. They were Level 220 and 215 respectively, elite Slayers by any measure. They'd cleared dozens of Extreme-Class missions together, survived horrors that would break lesser fighters. But this? This was beyond anything in their experience.
Captain Valdris would know what to do, Dani thought desperately. He always knew what to do.
---
Three Years Ago, Crimson Blade Guild Hall
"You want us to partner with her?" Dani had stared at Captain Valdris in disbelief. "Sir, with all due respect, she's a healer. I'm a tracker. Our skillsets don't synergize at all."
Valdris had smiled that knowing smile of his, the one that said he understood something she didn't yet.
"Dani, you're one of the best trackers I've ever seen. You can find anyone, anywhere, under any conditions. But you know your weakness."
Dani had looked away. "Close combat. I'm fragile."
"Exactly. And Kora here," he'd gestured to the shy young woman standing nervously by the door, "is a combat healer. Not just support, she can hold her own in a fight while keeping her allies alive. Together, you cover each other's weaknesses."
"But---"
"I'm not asking, Dani. I'm ordering, you two are partners now. Learn to trust each other."
She'd been furious. Insulted, even. But Valdris had been right.
Over the next three years, she and Kora had become inseparable sisters.
---
A Dani-copy's fist crashed into her jaw, snapping her back to the present. Blood filled her mouth, her vision doubled.
[ Health Points: 29% ]
"Dani!" Kora's scream was raw with terror. "Healing Light!"
Golden radiance washed over Dani, knitting broken bones and sealing split skin. But Kora's copies were already moving, their staffs raised, their own healing magic inverting into necrotic energy that would rot flesh from bone.
"I've got you!" Dani lunged forward, her tracking magic flaring. She could sense the flow of mana in the copies, could see the microsecond difference in their casting time.
There!
"Disruption Pulse!"
Her magic slammed into the Kora-copies an instant before they completed their spell, shattering the casting and buying them precious seconds.
Kora stumbled, exhausted, and fell against Dani's back. They were both bloodied, both running on fumes, both terrified.
But together.
Always together.
"Remember what Captain Valdris used to say?" Kora whispered, her voice barely audible over the chaos.
Dani felt tears sting her eyes. "'The Crimson Blade never breaks. We bend, we bleed, but we never break."
"We're going to survive this," Kora said, and Dani heard the lie in her voice, heard the desperate hope trying to mask the certainty of death. "We have to... for him."
Dani reached back, found Kora's hand, squeezed it once.
"Together," she whispered.
"Together," Kora echoed.
Krad crashed through a mirror, his body carved from broken reflections. The Krad-copies descended like vultures, their fists glowing with stolen Moon Eater power.
[ Health Points: 25% ]
[ System Alpha: Critical damage threshold approaching. Recommend immediate withdrawal. ]
[ System Buddy: Krad, please! We need to run! ]
But there was nowhere to run. This was Han's domain, her reality. She controlled the fabric of space here.
Let me out! the Moon Eater roared inside his soul. Let me devour this false queen and her puppet army!
"No!" Krad gasped, blocking a kick that shattered his forearm. Pain exploded up his arm, white-hot and screaming. "I won't... let you..."
Another copy drove a knee into his solar plexus. The air left his lungs in a violent rush. He collapsed to his knees, coughing blood.
Through his blurring vision, he could see Mist surrounded by a forest of swords, all pointed at his throat. Could see Dani and Kora fighting desperately, their movements slowing as exhaustion and wounds accumulated.
We're losing.
The thought was bitter.
We're still going to die here.
"Disappointing," Han's voice drifted down from her throne. "I expected more from Master Xerxes' prized vessel. But you're just a child playing with power you don't understand."
She stood, began descending the steps.
"Perhaps I should end this. Master wanted entertainment, but this is becoming tedious."
Han raised her hand.
Every mirror in the Mirage Palace shattered simultaneously, and from the broken glass, a thousand more copies emerged. Not just of them... copies of every fighter they'd ever faced, every monster they'd ever killed. An army of reflections pulled from their memories and given terrible, solid form.
[ Enemy Count: 1,247 ]
[ System Alpha: ...no viable strategy detected. ]
[ System Buddy: I... I'm sorry, Krad. I don't know what to do. ]
Krad looked at Mist, at Dani, at Kora.
They were all at their limit. All bleeding... all dying.
And in that moment, Krad made a choice.
If we're going to die anyway...
His hand ignited with silver light.
Then we die fighting.
"Devouring Palm!"
He didn't know where the technique name came from—it simply appeared in his mind, a gift or curse from the entity sealed inside him. His palm thrust forward, and reality bent around his hand. The Krad-copies in front of him didn't just die... they were unmade, erased from existence as if they'd never been.
[ 57 Copies Destroyed ]
[ Mana: 15% ]
Han's white eyes widened fractionally. "Oh? Now that's more interesting."
But even as Krad struck, he felt something shift inside him. The Moon Eater's presence grew stronger, its whispers louder. Using its power came with a price, and he'd just made a payment.
More, it crooned. Use more... become more.
"Krad, don't!" Mist's voice cut through the battlefield. "If you lose control---"
"I know!" Krad shouted back. "But what choice do we have?!"
He unleashed another Devouring Palm, erasing thirty more copies. Then another, and another.
Each strike took more mana, more control... more of himself.
[ Mana: 8% ]
[ Warning: Moon Eater influence increasing. ]
[ Warning: Host consciousness deteriorating. ]
His golden eyes flickered, silver beginning to bleed into the irises.
Watching from her throne, Han's expression shifted to something like genuine interest.
"Yes," she murmured. "Yes, show me. Show me what Master saw in you."
She gestured, and the army of copies parted, creating a clear path between her and Krad.
"Come, vessel. If you want to save your friends, you'll have to go through me."
It was a trap... obviously a trap.
Krad charged anyway.
His fist, wreathed in silver and gold, rocketed toward Han's perfect face. She didn't dodge.
She caught his fist in her palm, and the impact sent shockwaves through the Mirage Palace. Mirrors shattered, the throne cracked, the air screamed. But Han didn't even flinch.
"Level 150 striking a Level 5000," she observed clinically. "The power gap is insurmountable, you must realize this."
Krad's other hand came up, clawing for her throat. Han caught that too, holding both his wrists in an unbreakable grip.
"But I'll admit," she continued, tilting her head, "your determination is admirable. Futile, but admirable."
She squeezed.
Krad's wrists shattered like breadsticks.
[ Critical Damage! ]
[ Health Points: 11% ]
His scream echoed through the palace. Han released him, and he collapsed at her feet, cradling his ruined arms.
"That's enough," Han decided. "You've entertained me adequately. Now---"
"Graaaahhh!"
The roar came from Kora.
The young healer's eyes blazed with golden light—not the gentle radiance of healing magic, but something fierce and primal. Her staff erupted with power that made the air shimmer.
[ Rage Manifestation Detected ]
[ System Alpha: Impossible. She's a support class. She shouldn't be capable of--- ]
Kora moved.