Chapter 131: The Shattered Mirror’s Edge

Chapter 131: The Shattered Mirror’s Edge Maria’s hand tightened around Vex’s throat, her knuckles white from the strain of maintaining her grip on the unconscious woman. Victory felt hollow in her chest—too easy, too clean for someone of Vex’s reputation. The phantom pain from her elaborate illusion still coursed through her nervous system, making her fingers tremble despite her apparent triumph. ’Something’s wrong. She gave up too easily at the end. Someone with her skills doesn’t just—’ Vex’s eyes snapped open, blazing with renewed fury and something else—calculation. Her legs came up in a vicious twist, both boots connecting with Maria’s ribs with bone-crushing force. The impact lifted Maria off her feet, sending her flying backward through the air before she crashed into a pile of rubble with a sickening crunch. "Did you really think," Vex snarled, rolling smoothly to her feet despite her wounded hamstring, "that I would fall for the same deception twice?" Maria coughed up blood, her vision swimming as she struggled to rise from the debris. Several ribs were definitely broken this time—real ones, not phantom pain from an illusion. "You were... unconscious. I felt your pulse stop." "I’ve mastered techniques you can’t even imagine, girl." Vex’s form began to shimmer and split again, but this time the duplicates looked more solid, more real. "Controlling my own heartbeat and brain activity is child’s play compared to what I’m about to show you." Maria managed to get to one knee, blood running down her chin as she assessed her situation. ’Badly injured. She’s not falling for illusions anymore. And she’s holding back something—I can see it in her eyes.’ Vex took a step forward, then stopped abruptly. Her head turned slowly toward something Maria couldn’t see, her expression shifting from predatory confidence to absolute horror. "No," Vex whispered, her voice breaking. "Not you. You’re dead. I saw them kill you." Maria followed her gaze but saw nothing except empty air and falling snow. The battlefield around them continued its chaotic symphony of clashing steel and shouted commands, but Vex seemed oblivious to everything except the invisible presence that held her transfixed. "Selene?" Vex’s voice cracked like a child’s, tears streaming down her face. "Selene, I tried to avenge you. I tried to make them pay for what they did." Understanding struck Maria like a physical blow. ’She’s seeing someone who isn’t there. Someone important to her. Someone dead.’ Vex reached out with shaking hands toward the empty space, her earlier composure completely shattered. "I’m so sorry I couldn’t save you. I should have been faster, should have been stronger. When that water bitch killed you, I—" Her words cut off in a scream of pure anguish that echoed across the battlefield. The sound was so raw, so filled with grief and rage, that even nearby warriors paused in their own fights to stare. "I’ll join you soon," Vex sobbed, her body beginning to change in ways that defied natural law. "I promise, my love. We’ll be together forever, just like we swore." The transformation was immediate and terrifying. Vex’s form began to fracture and multiply, but not like before—this was chaos incarnate. Dozens of versions of herself materialized around Maria, each one reflecting a different aspect of madness and loss. Some wept uncontrollably, others laughed with manic intensity, while still others screamed wordlessly at the sky. The very air around them began to warp and twist, reality bending under the weight of Vex’s fractured psyche. The snow-covered courtyard dissolved, replaced by a nightmarish landscape of shifting geometry and impossible colors. The sounds of battle became distorted, stretching and compressing like voices heard through deep water. "What is this?" Maria gasped, struggling to maintain her footing as the ground beneath her feet became fluid and unstable. "Fractured Reverie," Vex’s voice came from everywhere at once, each duplicate speaking in unison. "The deepest level of reality manipulation—where madness and power become indistinguishable. I’ve torn apart the barrier between what is and what should be." The battlefield around them had become something from a fever dream. Warriors found themselves fighting in corridors that led nowhere, their weapons striking enemies that were simultaneously real and imaginary. Gravity shifted randomly, sending combatants tumbling through air that had become thick as honey. Even the commanders fighting Luna’s other guards were affected, their carefully planned tactics dissolving into chaos as the environment refused to obey natural law. Lyra’s water attacks curved backward on themselves, while Elira’s air blades cut through space that immediately healed behind them. "Do you understand now?" the chorus of Vex-duplicates asked, their voices layering into harmonies of madness. "This is what loss does to someone like me. This is what happens when the only person who mattered is torn away by your righteous crusade." Maria tried to cast an illusion of her own, but the reality around her was too unstable. Her power, which relied on subtle manipulation of perception, couldn’t find purchase in a world where perception itself had become meaningless. "Your illusions are lies," the duplicates continued, beginning to circle Maria like predators. "But madness? Madness is the purest truth. It strips away pretense and shows the world as it really is—random, cruel, and utterly without meaning." The attacks came from all directions, each duplicate wielding weapons that shifted and changed mid-strike. Maria dodged desperately, but in a space where up and down had no meaning, evasion became nearly impossible. A blade that looked like crystallized grief sliced across her shoulder, while claws made of solidified rage raked down her back. ’I can’t fight this. She’s not just using illusions—she’s rewritten the fundamental rules of reality through sheer force of madness. Every wound is real, every threat genuine.’ Blood flowed freely from Maria’s injuries as she was driven to her knees by the relentless assault. The duplicates pressed their advantage, their attacks becoming more brutal and personal with each strike. "You took her from me," they hissed in unison. "Selene was everything pure and good in this world, and your people murdered her for the crime of loving someone on the wrong side." Maria’s vision blurred from blood loss and pain, but through her agony, she began to understand something crucial about Vex’s fractured state. ’She’s not in control anymore. The madness is driving her, but it’s also her weakness. She’s so focused on Selene that she’s not thinking clearly.’ "You left me no other choice," Maria whispered, her voice barely audible over the chaos surrounding them. She closed her eyes and reached deep into her power, not to create illusions of sight or sound, but to craft something far more dangerous—an assault on the very foundations of Vex’s psyche. When Maria opened her eyes again, they blazed with cold determination. Standing beside her, as real as life itself, was a perfect recreation of Selene. Not as she had died, but as she had lived—beautiful, gentle, with eyes full of love and concern. "Vex," the illusion said softly, her voice carrying across the fractured battlefield with heartbreaking clarity. "My beloved Vex, what have you become?" Every duplicate froze mid-attack, their weapons dissolving as Vex’s attention focused entirely on the impossible sight before her. "Selene?" The name was a prayer on her lips. "But you’re... you’re dead. They killed you." The false Selene stepped forward, her expression filled with profound sadness. "Yes, I’m dead. And do you know why I died, my love?" "Because they were monsters," Vex sobbed, her duplicates beginning to fade as her concentration wavered. "Because they couldn’t accept what we had." "No," Selene said gently, each word driving into Vex’s heart like a blade. "I died because you brought me to war. I died because your need for revenge was more important than my need to live peacefully." The fractured reality around them began to collapse inward, the impossible landscape giving way to the original snow-covered courtyard. But Vex seemed oblivious to the change, her entire being focused on the woman she had lost. "That’s not true," Vex whispered, but her voice lacked conviction. "I begged you to leave with me," the illusion continued, her form beginning to fade at the edges. "I begged you to find somewhere we could be happy together, away from all this death and hatred. But you chose vengeance over love." "I chose you!" Vex screamed, falling to her knees in the snow. "Everything I did was for you!" "Then why," Selene asked, her voice growing distant, "are you still choosing violence over the peace I wanted? Why are you becoming the very thing that killed me—a weapon pointed at innocent people?" The truth hit Vex like a physical blow, her remaining duplicates dissolving completely as her power turned inward. The realization that her quest for revenge had transformed her into everything Selene had despised broke something fundamental in her psyche. "I’m sorry," she whispered, tears freezing on her cheeks. "I’m so sorry, my love. I became a monster trying to avenge an angel." The false Selene knelt beside her, reaching out with hands that were already becoming translucent. "Then come with me," she said softly. "Come with me now, and we can finally be at peace." "Together?" Vex asked, her voice small and broken. "Forever," the illusion promised. Vex looked up at Maria, her eyes clear for perhaps the first time in years. "Thank you," she said simply. "For showing me what I had forgotten." Before Maria could react, Vex pressed both hands against her own chest. Her power, no longer directed outward, began consuming her from within. Her body started to dissolve, not into duplicates but into nothingness itself. "Wait," Maria said, suddenly understanding what was happening. "You don’t have to—" "Yes, I do." Vex’s form was becoming transparent, following the fading illusion of Selene toward whatever lay beyond. "This is the only way I can stop being what I became. The only way I can be worthy of her again." As the last traces of Vex dissolved into the falling snow, her final words echoed across the battlefield: "Forgive me, Selene. I’m coming home." Maria collapsed into the bloodstained snow, her injuries finally overwhelming her adrenaline. The fractured reality had fully collapsed, leaving behind only the ordinary horror of war and the weight of what she had been forced to do. Around her, the other battles continued, but something had fundamentally changed. The use of such deep psychological manipulation had cost Maria more than just blood—it had shown her a darkness in her own power that she had never wanted to acknowledge. ’I killed her,’ Maria thought, staring at the empty space where Vex had vanished. ’Not with blade or magic, but by destroying her will to live. Is that what I’ve become? Is that what this war has made of us all?’ The snow continued to fall, covering the evidence of the battle but unable to wash away the memory of what had transpired in those terrible moments when madness and love had collided in the most final way possible.