"Well, I think you already know my name, but just in case, I'm Markus. My comrades here are Dereshi and Fisch. What's your name?"
Markus spoke low and clear, his stout voice carrying every trait of a leader. And yet...
Elias was sure that he was still a kid. Heck, the boy barely had an Adam's apple.
Did that mean the rest were young as well? He couldn't turn to see, and their voices did sound like adults, but...
'Well, even if I was saved by a group of warrior kids, I guess it isn't as strange as letting an old stranger man kill me.'
"I guess he doesn't have a name. Oh well, off to vampire hunting we go!" Dereshi's voice cut through his thoughts, just waiting to annoy him.
With a low growl, Elias responded, "I do have a name. It's Damien."
Nodding his head, Markus said, "I see."
Then, he stuck his hand out, as if offering to help Elias stand. But once again, that should be impossible since they were in a 2D world.
Confused, Elias repeated his second question.
"How did you get beside me? This world... isn't it flat?"
"So?" Dereshi snickered.
'Once again with that annoying voice,' Elias thought. He couldn't wait to learn how to move in this place. 'Once I do, you're finished. I'm gonna goomba stomp you so fucking hard.'
Thankfully, Markus took his question more seriously even if confusion was evident on his face. Tilting his head, the general boy asked, "You have an artifact, no?"
He pointed to Elias's right hand, which was clutching the coin in a vice grip.
Realistically, Elias knew the coin was completely out of everyone's sight. He had taken special care to hide it the second he heard their voices. This meant that there was a supernatural power that gave enhanced vision or at least something similar.
If so, Elias knew it would be important to not only learn this skill but also how to conceal his presence.
Such a skill wouldn't be learned overnight, though. For now, he just had to observe everything in this new world.
'Focus.'
Elias tightened his grip on the coin, forcing his mind to focus. Markus had called this coin an 'artifact.' That would be a good place to start his journey for knowledge.
Doing his best to gather information without sounding clueless, Elias said, "If you mean my coin, sure. But I don't see how that's important."
"Well," Markus whispered. "That makes you a rogue priest."
"Which means we gotta kill you," Dereshi muttered.
"What?" Elias's heart dropped to the bottom of an ocean's abyss. If what she said was true, then he was going to have to kill again...
"She's joking," Fisch said before scolding Dereshi. "Y'know, he's clearly already stressed enough! How is his suffering funny!"
"I dunno," Dereshi shrugged.
Sighing, Markus waved his hand to silence them before turning back to Elias.
"In all seriousness, though, this is definitely new, even for me. But if you truly don't understand anything about this world, you better learn fast. I'm sure you already heard this, but we're tasked with clearing out a vampire nest."
Markus's face grew completely dark when he explained, "Vampires are dangerous. Back on Earth, they kill around 200,000 people a year."
Although Elias said nothing, he noted what Markus had said.
'Back on Earth.'
"That's why we're here," Markus continued. "Since they attack our homeland, we have no choice but to take the fight to them and every other bastard monster."
Markus's face suddenly grew dark and murderous. It was a look Elias knew well, as he had seen it many times.
It was the face of a killer. Dark and cold, there was no room for any emotion or conviction unless it was necessary for murder.
A small chuckle came from behind Elias, followed by Fisch's voice. "Uh, e-each of them belongs to a world inside the Mirror dimension. D-different clans may claim different worlds, b-but all of them originate from this dimension."
"A place that could be Earth, but is too much like hell," Fisch whispered, almost sounding as if he was citing a passage.
Markus nodded his head before forcing a smile on his face. Suddenly he looked like he was about to go to some theme park, not murder a bunch of vampires in a crusade of justice.
Sticking his hand out, Markus said, "Anyways, we need to get going. To answer your first question, think of it like a video game. One of the old ones like Mario or Sonic. I think Shinji called them 'platformers.'"
"Either way, there's a background in the game, right? Like, you can run by fences and see a castle in the distance and everything. Although the game character would never be able to notice or take advantage of that, we can because we're 3-dimensional beings. Up, down, and sideways are all natural motions for us."
"Basically, don't take the world at face value. Even if it appears to be a flat, 2D space, you must use your knowledge as a 3-dimensional being to move around."
"If you can't figure that out, you're gonna die," Markus sighed as he pulled Elias up. "I don't know how you got yourself in this mess, but you kinda fucked up. Coming to a flat mirror as clueless as you are is like facing a final boss at level 1. Even for us experienced saints, only one of us is expected to survive this excursion."
'Shit,' Elias thought before tightening his hold on his coin. At the same time the old man's voice echoed in his mind.
One of them will die trying to protect you.
It felt like such an obvious lie. The world didn't work like that. Strangers never helped one another, or at least they never helped him. They simply tried to ignore him before his problems became theirs.
Ever since his parents died, Elias had fought alone, doing his best to make a good life for him and his sister even when the world wanted nothing more than to shit all over him.
And he succeeded by trusting in himself more than anyone else.
Clutching the coin with a vice grip as if it was his only lifeline, Elias tried to move around.
'Think 3-dimensional,' Elias thought as he tried to turn around.
Ignoring the boundaries of the world, Elias raised his right foot and spun around on his left heel. If he was a 2D creature, even this simple maneuver would be impossible. His body would simply rotate a complete 180 degrees in an instant.
Even this simple act of turning defied this world, this flat mirror. But still, he was a 3-dimensional being and had to think like one. He had to impose himself upon this world as one.
Just like Markus said.
Stomping his right foot down in triumph, Elias grinned at his two other new comrades.
He had successfully turned. He had moved like a 3D being once again.
Fisch raised his hand and waved with a smile. "Hey, looks like we'll all survive this after all."