Nox's reflections faded one after another, and his mirror dimension began to crack. His teammates gasped, visibly exhausted by the fight they had just fought. Before them lay the body of a humanoid raven, slowly dying.

In the center of the scene, a reflection of Nox stood motionless, his gaze fixed on the monster resulting from the fusion of its congeners.

"It's impossible," the raven whispered, his eyes fixed on Nox's reflection. "He's just a human..."

Nox's reflection smiled, and his smile was like a knife slicing through flesh.

"It's over," he said, his voice low and hoarse. "Since you seem to be endowed with intelligence, can you tell me where the boss of this portal is?"

The raven let out a strange sound, his eyes gleaming with malice.

"It's not over, just the first round. You don't even deserve to face him. Let's see how long it will take me to kill you all," he said before his body disintegrated and the mirror dimension shattered.

"He won't really come back, will he?" Nox's reflection wondered as he disappeared.

...

Earlier, after entering the mirror dimension, the giant ravens confronted by the hundreds of Nox's reflections as well as his teammates were getting hammered.

The reason for their defeat was simple. In the mirror dimension, their weight had increased due to gravity, making them slow. This had turned them into easy targets for Nox and his teammates. Not to mention that the space around them constantly warped, thus altering their perception of distance. Furthermore, a large number of ravens had been trapped in the booby-trapped edifice, causing their deaths. In simpler terms, their inability to adapt in unknown territory had been their undoing.

As they were all dying, each of the giant raven bodies had transformed into shadow to fuse, in order to create something stronger and more monstrous: a large humanoid raven, endowed with speech and intelligence. He was intelligent and cunning, with a deep understanding of magic and nature.

The humanoid raven measured about 1.80 meters in height, with an elegant and athletic silhouette. His body was covered in shiny black feathers that seemed to absorb the light around him. His eyes were a piercing yellow, with a black pupil that seemed to see right through you.

His face was human, with fine and delicate features, but with a black, pointed beak replacing the nose and mouth. His long, narrow wings unfurled like a cloak behind him.

With his dark and mysterious presence, which seemed to draw everyone's attention, he was like a solitary hunter focused on his prey.

In one movement, he moved with incredible grace and agility, as if floating on air.

His long, thin hands, with fingers ending in sharp black claws, became covered in shadow. Then, he clenched them.

"Shadow Manifestation: Shadow Slash!" he screamed, swinging his arms as he rushed towards Nox's teammates.

The fight resumed fiercely, but unfortunately, even in this form, and despite all his prodigious shadow-related abilities, he had not managed to turn the tide. Which had led to his death.

...

Outside the mirror dimension, Johan and the other S-rank guardians had already finished dealing with the dark wyverns and were extracting some useful materials from their bodies.

The sky, which had been dark at the beginning of the fight, began to clear. And, even more astonishing, the dark forest that Nox had destroyed with his sword stroke had reappeared, as if by magic. Nox contemplated what was happening with a hint of emotion in his eyes.

The damage he had caused with his technique was still visible in the environment. It was proof that they hadn't traveled back in time.

"What is this sleight of hand?" he wondered, frowning.

Nox clenched his fists, his gaze fixed on the horizon, ready to face what was next.

...

"This might get complicated," Johan thought, noticing the change. "But oh well, it should be fine if Nox is around." His teammates, though focused on their task, had also noticed the changes but no one spoke.

On the other side, the mirror dimension was shattering like a piece of broken glass, gradually revealing the edifice that had returned to its normal form.

Nox, who was outside, was contemplating the changes looming on the horizon. The words the humanoid raven had spoken before disintegrating came back to him: "It's not over, just the first round. You don't even deserve to face him. Let's see how long it will take me to kill you all..."

A feeling of unease gripped his body, sending a shiver down his spine.

The mirror dimension finished disintegrating, giving way to a calm and peaceful landscape. The edifice, which had returned to its normal form, stood before Nox, silent and motionless.

Johan and the other S-rank guardians joined Nox, their faces grim and worried.

"What's going on?" Johan asked, his gaze sweeping the horizon. "This forest... it was destroyed a moment ago."

Nox shook his head, his gaze still fixed on the horizon.

"I don't know," he replied, his voice low and hoarse. "But everything suggests that this is part of the raven's powers. Let's rest first to regain strength," he continued.

"A raven?" Johan asked, intrigued.

While he was curious about this mysterious raven, the other guardians came out of the edifice and one of them began to recount their fight to him.

Johan's and the other S-ranks' faces hardened as they listened to the account of the battle. Besides the raven, what shocked them the most were Nox's abilities.

"I see," he finally said at the end of the narrative.

Johan sat on a stone bench, his gaze fixed on Nox who seemed lost in thought.

Without further delay, while resting, they began to discuss various strategies to

quickly defeat this monster if it returned.

Nox, sitting on a block of stone, listened to them without saying a word. He closed his eyes, trying to concentrate on his surroundings, but his mind was elsewhere.

He was thinking about the humanoid raven, his words, his gaze.

He was thinking about the dark forest, and especially about that mysterious being behind the raven. He knew he wasn't just an enemy, but a pawn in a larger game, and he had to prepare for it.

Nox opened his eyes, his gaze fixed on the guardians.

"Prepare yourselves," he said, his voice low and hoarse.

Suddenly, a sound was heard, a sound that made the ground tremble beneath their feet. The guardians turned towards the source of the noise, their hands on their weapons.

Then, before their eyes, the sky darkened again. The dark forest began to spread again and new monsters started to emerge, heading towards them. Giant ravens and specters were present again, in greater numbers.

Nox would have liked to use his sword technique to annihilate them, but if he used it, his teammates could also take damage.

As for his mirror dimension, Nox could not use it on himself and was not able to bring other people into it for the moment. This was due to certain conditions specific to the dimension.

He inhaled then shouted in a loud voice.

"Stay grouped and trust each other. There will be no mirror dimension this time," he said.

Nox took a fighting stance. Johan raised his hand and an enormous amount of mana began to condense there. Thus, hostilities resumed even fiercer.

And without much surprise, Nox and his team ended up emerging victorious again. But it didn't end there...

The phenomenon similar to a return was repeated a third time, then a fourth, then a fifth. But Nox and his team held firm...

In each fight, the raven tested different strategies, but always ended up bowing down.

With each return, he perfected himself by organizing the forest monsters better. Learning lessons from his past defeats, he evolved. However, for Nox and his teammates, the damage was accumulating, making them weaker and weaker as the fight dragged on.

"He's certainly not immortal," Nox thought, despite all the fighting he had just done.

Unlike him, doubts had begun to grip the minds of some of his teammates as they saw the determination and perseverance the raven showed in trying to kill them.

"Can we really defeat him?" a guardian asked, his voice broken with eyes devoid of emotion.

...

Dear readers, here we are at the end of this chapter.

I am aware that the memories are starting to get longer but there's nothing I can do about it...

I just hope you haven't gotten confused.

If you have any questions or suggestions, or any other concerns about the work, please feel free to share them with me in the comments.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.