Fallen Pride was already there, running atop collapsing beams, her boots pounding along the walls of the falling buildings as she leapt from one broken structure to another with impossible speed.

Clang… Clang… Clang…

Leo and Essa blinked in confusion.

"Are you su—"

"I am damn sure!" Essa shouted, her voice a jagged spark, "Those buildings aren't just falling—they're shifting! Warping space! I've felt it—every time, I've hit on a building, I was carried somewhere else by this damned magic!"

Fallen Pride leapt again, moving from one crumbling slab to another. Every step she took landed clean- her boots touching nothing but solid stone, never the glass. Each swing of her sword sent trails of reddish-black light cutting across the falling rubble, chasing Essa wherever she went.

Leo and Essa had no choice but to follow. They lunged from collapsing surfaces to vanishing ledges, their feet kicking up stones, gravity itself twisting and shifting beneath them as if the world threatened to drop away at any moment.

Leo's heartbeat thundered in his ears. He dodged a falling beam, "Should we… leave?" he gasped, "Essa, this whole place is turning inside out!"

Essa gritted her teeth, "Either way, we have to face her, Leo! There's nowhere to run! Not now!"

Pride's sword descended—a vertical slash like a falling star. Leo blocked it mid-air, metal ringing. The force hurled him back, smashing him against a cracked wall that trembled and shuddered, the stone groaning under his weight, barely holding together.

Essa twisted, her rusted blade flickering, sparks hissing as she deflected the next blow aimed straight for her heart. She staggered, feet dragging a line through broken dust, but her glare never wavered.

But something caught Leo's attention.... Every time Pride's blade struck, her feet landed on stone.

Never on glass?

Leo's eyes narrowed, sweat trailing down his cheek as his mind raced. "Wait…" he muttered, breath trembling. His grip on the katana tightened until his knuckles burned. "She's not touching the mirrors… She's avoiding them."

Leo remembered the night Fallen Nergal almost devoured him—the moment he survived by accident, when a window crashed down, and the next thing he knew, he was somewhere else, alive by pure chance.

"Maybe those window mirrors are what's teleporting," Leo muttered.

Essa turned sharply, "What are you talking ab—"

Before she could finish, Leo inhaled deep... a surge of mana burning through his veins, flowing to his legs, muscles glowing faint blue under his skin. "I'll test it!" he roared.

"LEO!" Essa screamed, reaching out—

He was already gone.

He leapt toward one of the falling stones, right beside a glowing pane of fractured glass.

The moment his foot hit the solid stone… nothing happened.

Essa's eyes widened from afar.

Pride noticed too—her eyes twitched.

Leo raised his sword, "So it's true," he said coldly, "Only the mirrors…"

He turned his gaze up at Fallen Pride, who watched from atop a higher slab of stone. Her black-red aura crackled, spiralling around her boots.

"And what will you do with that knowledge, boy?"

Leo smirked faintly, a wild glint in his eyes. "Turn it against you."

Before Pride could even blink, Essa had already mirrored Leo's move. She leapt to another crumbling stone nearby, her rusted sword blazing with a faint golden hue along its ragged edges.

For the first time, they stood evenly across from her.

Fallen Pride's smirk widened, "Then come," she whispered, lips curling. "Let's see if you can touch me before I erase you both from this world."

Her blade rose, and with a gesture, crimson-black lightning erupted outward.

Each strike tore through what remained of the broken city, thunder rolling with every swing. Their feet barely touched anything solid before it splintered or crumbled away into the abyss.

Fallen Pride moved like she commanded gravity itself, drifting through chaos as if weightless. Her crimson aura pulsed in violent rhythm, sword cutting through debris and even the air, leaving ragged tears of darkness behind. Essa and Leo flanked her—coming at her from opposite sides, for the first time perfectly synchronised.

But even together, they couldn't break her defence.

Leo's katana clashed with Pride's blade head-on, sparks showering. At that same instant, Essa appeared behind her, rusted sword descending like a streak of green fire.

CLANG!

Pride twisted mid-air, turning faster than human eyes could follow, armoured fingers snapping around Essa's blade. She flicked it aside, then, in the same breath, spun her sword and parried Leo's strike with impossible precision.

Essa spun backwards, boots skidding across a fragment of wall that disintegrated beneath her. As stone gave way, she sprang again, slashing downward, light trailing from her weapon.

Pride caught the attack with one hand, almost casually. Her other palm rose toward Leo, fingers splayed, glowing with black and red sparks that hissed with power.

A pulse of invisible force crashed into Leo before he could even brace.

"—Tch!"

He flew backwards, tumbling through a rain of shattered debris before smashing against solid ground. Pain jolted through his bones. He groaned, forcing himself upright, gasping for breath—just as something heavy slammed into his back.

A dead body?

Its flesh pale, slick with a chilling, transparent, sticky fluid.

"Urgh—damn it!" Leo cursed, shoving the corpse off him.

He pushed it aside, watched as the body rolled, limp, into a nearby cracked mirror window—

—and vanished.

Leo froze, "Wait…"

The same corpse fell on him again, dropping from empty air with a sickening slap.

He hissed, shoving it off with disgust and growing horror. "What the—?!"

He threw the corpse again, this time aiming for a different mirror window.

The body vanished and—

Thud!

It landed on him again, slamming into his shoulder, sliding off in a cold heap.

Leo stared, bewildered, at the sticky corpse sprawled across the dust. Why was it always landing on him?

Annoyed, he shoved it toward the same window once more.

The body disappeared mid-air, twisting as it passed through the shimmering glass—then reappeared several meters away, tumbling down with a wet thud near the rusted wreck of a broken car.

Leo's frown deepened... Something was wrong.

This wasn't random.

He glanced up—the battle above still raged... Fallen Pride and Essa were vaulting from one collapsing structure to another.

Leo turned his gaze back to the mirror window. A faint blue shimmer pulsed along its cracked edge.

He followed the glow with his eyes, watching as the reflection danced across another shard of glass nearby, then skipped to another.

Each mirror linked to the next, forming a lattice—a web of reflections and light, connecting fragments of space like invisible threads.

He squinted, something clicking in his mind. He bent, picked up a chunk of stone, and hurled it at one of the mirrors at a precise angle.

The rock vanished—then instantly appeared right where the blue reflection ended.

"So that's it…" Leo muttered, eyes narrowing in realisation. "The mirrors carry the light, and wherever the light is reflected, it pulls matter with it. The teleportation isn't random—it's bound to the path of the reflection."

He looked at the beam of light in the sky and the mirrored glasses.

A slow, knowing smirk touched his lips.

He grabbed another stone, tossed it at another angle, watching as it disappeared—only to reappear at the end of the light's trail just as expected. The path was exact, predictable. Every object followed the same logic.

His gaze lifted back to the chaos above—just as Essa stumbled, forced back by a furious assault. Fallen Pride's blade flashed, grazing Essa's side. Blood scattered in the air as she tumbled onto another collapsing slab.

Leo's hand clenched into a fist. He forced himself upright, brushing the dust. "Alright…" he whispered.

Leo leapt onto a cracked wall, boots skidding across the stone, then launched himself upward. In a breath, he landed beside Essa, just long enough to whisper, voice barely audible over the roar of destruction, his words meant only for her.

Essa frowned, eyes wild and alert, darting to his face. "Are you sure about that?" she breathed, voice shaking with doubt and pain.

Leo nodded once, steady and unyielding. "Believe me… It's either that, or we die stupid."

Her expression shifted, resolve sharpening. Despite the tremor in her exhausted body and blood streaking down her torn sleeve, she managed a faint smile under the hoodie!

"Fine. Then let's make it count."

Fallen Pride tilted her head, sword resting casually on her shoulder, "What's your pretty little plan now?" she taunted.

Neither of them answered.

The next instant, both of them leapt toward the nearest mirror. Their bodies blurred and the glass rippled like water... and they vanished.

Pride blinked once, her smirk deepening, "So running away is the plan? Tsk." She clicked her tongue, lowering her blade so the tip dragged sparks along the fractured stone.

"Pathetic—"

Clang!

A blade came down from above—so close it almost split her head in half. She twisted, blocking just in time, sparks showering across her armour. Before she could counter, another strike slashed from behind—Leo's katana, carving deep into her shoulder.

Black Blood sprayed into the air!

Her eyes widened… then they were gone again?

Her eyes darted, body on edge, every muscle coiled as if expecting another assault from nowhere.

They emerged from another mirror, this time behind her flank. Essa's rusted sword whistled through the air, trailing violet sparks. Pride spun to meet her, boots cracking broken stones, but Leo appeared from the opposite reflection, blades crossing in perfect, deadly rhythm.

Each step, each strike… vanish, reappear, attack.

They became twin phantoms, dancing through the shattered world.

Mirrored glass twisted space!

The world became a web of mirrored shards—each reflecting a new angle, a new strike. Magic pulsed in every fragment, blue light bouncing between surfaces, linking their movements in impossible geometry.

Pride's armour groaned under the onslaught, runes across her black steel glowing with each impact, scratches forming like glowing veins across the armour's dark surface.

She parried one blow, then two, but couldn't keep up... Leo's blade grazed her ribs, drawing a searing line of pain, while Essa's next swing tore open a line across her thigh. Sparks and black blood mixed mid-air!

For the first time, Fallen Pride looked… unsettled.

She sneered, voice cold. "You're getting bolder, little ghosts… but do you think tricks will save you?"

Her eyes darted between mirrors, trying to predict where they'd appear next.

They vanished before her strikes landed, reappeared behind her before the sound of her swing even echoed.

Clang!

BOOM!

A magical backlash exploded as her sword connected with a decoy, shattering another mirror.

Two strikes hit simultaneously—=... from opposite reflections.

Pride blocked one with her sword, the other with her armoured arm as she absorbed the impact. Still, the force drove her backwards, boots skidding across broken ground.

"GET OFF!!"

She roared, spinning her sword in a furious arc that shattered half the remaining mirrors. Shards exploded outward. But even as the shards fell, Leo's reflection formed in one of them.

He burst through!

Their blades collided in mid-air as the energy surged through his body. Pride snarled, forcing him back, her strength monstrous.

"ARRRHHHH!!"

Leo screamed, blood dripping from his head!

He twisted, letting go of his katana and… catching her sword with both arms, locking it under his shoulder.

"Got you…" He hissed.

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