Manifold Mirror Mage

Water floated in the air. Each droplet sparkled in the perpetual sunlight like a sculpture of clearest crystal.

Gio's eyes strained against the glare as he tried to see into the dark interior of the pagoda.

The divine construct crept forth. Its many misshapen feet glided across the surface of the water, causing small ripples that gently disturbed the deep basin below.

The divine servitors had left the center statue largely unchanged. Feminine features were carved into white stone with such high levels of detail that the texture of fabric could be seen in the stone even after centuries of decay. An ominous mask latched to the head, its empty eyes leaking a rust-colored liquid down and further blemishing the statue with a dark stain.

Below the waist, the construct's anatomy became less coherent. Parts of each goddess statue were broken apart into segments and haphazardly glued back together with red metal, like a child's doll that had seen better days. The other two statues were joined together at the neck, forming an elongated quadrupedal base with limbs that jutted out at odd angles.

Each member of the adventuring group braced themselves. Gio waited with bated breath, feeling his stomach clench as if he too was suspended in the air like the water around them. He was prepared to respond to anything with his reflective magic.

Rusty water lapped from the holes in the mask, spewing out and polluting the crystalline waters, befouling the sacred space. The construct held its hands out, cupping stone hands to catch some of the murky liquid.

What is it doing?

A foul sound rang out from the mask.

Gio clenched his jaw as he felt the noise ring through him. It was deeply unpleasant, high-pitched like nails on a chalkboard, and it felt like chewing on foil as it settled into his molars with a dissonant ache.

The liquid in the statue's hands curdled into metal. It pulled the chunky mud-like material like taffy, until it was shaped like a long pole. Three symmetrical points sprouted from one end, forming into a roughly shaped trident.

The magic of the Telchines? But… worse?

The construct dipped the weapon beneath the water, bending at the 'hip' with a cracking sound. Crystalline formations underneath the surface dimmed as power moved into the roughshod implement, rebirthing it into something new.

The water responded as the trident was pulled from below.

The metal had turned golden and had smoothed out considerably. In the middle of the three points, an aquamarine gem glittered, and Gio instantly knew that it was the focus of an immense amount of magic.

At the slightest touch of the trident, the waterfalls began to flow in reverse. All of the water that had been held in the air was now falling into the sky, creating a roar of noise. Raging torrents blocked both the way forward and backward. The group was trapped.

Nobody dared to move, not knowing what else to expect from the guardian.

The statue snapped its head toward Jean. With a flash of baleful light from the statue's leaking eyes, the tall boy fell to his knees with a pained scream, clutching at his head. A ball of water formed at the head of the trident, elongating into a menacing point aimed directly at Jean.

"Jean!" Gio shouted.

Chandrika and Gio both reacted immediately. Chandrika summoned her spellbook open to a spellform that thrummed with power. Strands of magic quickly wove around her, wrapping her in a silken cocoon. Gio slipped into the reflection at his feet, diving through the between like a bolt of light to appear next to Jean with a splash just in time to deflect an unusually solid spear of water.

"[Procession of the Courtesans]" Chandrika invoked. Although she was wrapped in layers of thread, her voice echoed across the water clearly.

A gong rang out, cutting through the din.

Gio sharply inhaled as he felt her presence grip the space around them.

Chandrika burst forth from the cocoon. She floated just above the surface of the water, and as she stepped onto air, scintillating tiles appeared under her slippered feet as her domain unfurled.

Gio helped Jean to his feet, noting with distress that the larger boy seemed to have a bad nosebleed.

Another gong rang out from Chandrika's direction. Gio turned to her, blinking at what he saw.

Chandrika looked like she was more prepared to attend a royal ceremony, rather than a pitched battle. An intricate gown of silk trailed behind the Great Sage, and her previously utilitarian braided hair was now swept into a styled updo underneath a translucent veil with a glittering gemstone adorning her forehead.

Did the spell… do her makeup for her?

Chandrika's gold-lidded eyes rose to meet the mud-leaking sockets of the construct. An illusory parade of faceless figures faded into reality at her sides, many holding various instruments, fans, and other ceremonial offerings. The faint scent of incense lingered in the air. One muscular phantom raised a heavy arm, bearing a mallet down on a gong to sound a third and final time as a captivating melody began to play from the whole procession.

Chandrika began to dance. Her sweeping and graceful motions seemed to ebb and flow with the sound of the music, drawing threads of magic throughout the arena. Unlike the domineering presence of Professor A's unsettling magic, Chandrika's domain almost felt like a guiding hand, inviting its subjects into a coordinated dance.

So she's using it to combat enemy witchcraft and buff us? Useful. I hope she can keep it up for a while.

Hatra and Sapphire were not idle either. Sapphire hastily summoned a shield of vines in front of the party, and Hatra began shooting globs of liquid fire at the construct. With the impact of each of Hatra's shots, a satisfying drumbeat from Chandrika's procession echoed, adding a feeling of tangible solidity to the hit. Gio hoped he didn't imagine that the fireballs were doing more damage than usual.

The construct slid adroitly out of the flames and steam, careening across the surface of the water with many snapping limbs and brandishing the trident like a lance. Water rose from the pool underneath, sheathing and elongating the trident into a rotating spire the size of a tree. It speared through Sapphire's leafy shield with barely any effort as it sped toward Chandrika, leveling the weapon at her heart.

Gio's eyes bulged as he lunged forward, barely intercepting the titanic assault. With a precipitous drop in his mana reserves, he reflected the spire, grimacing as it merely forced the construct back a few feet without doing any real damage. The reflected water instantly lost its form as it was removed from the influence of the trident, splashing against the retreating monstrosity.

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The backpedaling construct turned to Gio. His heart thumped to the drumbeat.

A strange wave of influence washed over him that settled behind his eyes, making his teeth buzz with profane energies. A chord from Chandrika's illusory players invited a second presence like a comforting blanket, which diminished the hostile curse so much that it was left to impotently ebb against his magical defenses like the tide against a seawall.

The two warring forces vied to exert influence over him. He didn't understand the specific nuances of the magic at play, but at the present moment, he didn't really need to. Gio quickly flung out two precise shards of mirror, aiming for the delicate-looking jewel at the center of the trident. The construct responded by flinging up a wall of solid water that stopped the needle-like projectiles with ease. Two more needles struck out from underneath the wall as Rio scored a clean hit that seemed to draw the construct's attention, despite not yet managing to chip the gem.

While the construct looked around for the source of the shards, Hatra fired another salvo of flaming globs. The construct absently spun the trident, washing away the fire with a lazy swell from underfoot, causing little more than a burst of steam.

"C'mon!" Hatra yelled. "This stuff melts steel! How is it putting it out so easily?"

Sapphire launched a bundle of what appeared to be satchels of white paper out into the water, which grew into sinuous vines that writhed through the water, only to get cleanly bisected by more blades of solid water before they could latch on to anything. The blue-haired girl furrowed her brow, searching through her bag for other options.

This thing is annoying.

An enraged Jean invoked a spell as he flew skyward, his burning eyes alit like wrathful stars as he wiped the blood from his mouth. His magic outlined him in white light, clinging to him as it increased his momentum to speeds that were hard to follow without magical assistance. The black-haired Castallane conjured a spear with a thought, driving it into the construct's center mass and strafing away before it could respond. Although the hit looked solid, the glowing wound rapidly cooled to a glassy but relatively undamaged stone in seconds with a puff of steam.

This thing is really, really annoying.

The rusted eye sockets snapped back towards Jean. Four arms of the construct gripped the trident firmly as mana and water began to consolidate in worrying amounts in an orb at its tip.

"Watch out, it's building pressure for something!" Hatra called.

A thin, pinprick-sized jet of pressurized water shot out from the small ball. Jean raced through the air to dodge the stream as it doggedly pursued him. The beam cut through the waterfalls encircling the arena, creating rain as the opposing flows of water clashed with incredible force.

"Whoa!" Jean yelled, catching his breath as the jet ran out of pressure.

"So even if we get a solid hit in, it will just retaliate with a bigger attack. It's kind of like… a machine." Gio said.

"So, what do we do?" Hatra asked.

Gio looked at Chandrika, who was too focused on maintaining her domain to contribute to the conversation.

Jean has the construct's attention for the moment, but the next time someone attacks it, that will probably change.

Gio's thoughts spiraled as the group peppered the construct with probing attacks. Gio did his best to redirect the colossal shapes of water away from Chandrika, while Hatra, Sapphire, and Jean tried everything they could think of. Periodically, Rio would chip in with a well-timed shot, drawing a slow trickle of mana from their shared skill that was quickly replaced by the inspiration from Sapphire's incredible potion.

As the construct slammed down another guillotine blade of pressurized water in Chandrika's direction, Gio cursed as he barely reflected the deluge of water.

"We need to shift strategies! Nothing is damaging it!" Gio yelled over the roar of water.

Hatra pulled back for a second, rearing back with her device. "I've got an idea! If it's using the water to attack us… let's see if it can turn THIS into weapons!"

She unleashed a spray of frozen mist, turning a cresting wave around the creature's lower body into a miniature iceberg.

The construct stilled for a long moment, allowing Jean and Rio to get a few more shots in. A spear from Jean seemed to finally chip a bit of stone off the construct's left shoulder, drawing a cheer from Hatra and Sapphire.

The trident pointed down to the growing iceberg encasing its legs and blocking it from accessing the water around it, and pale white lines of magic traced a square along the surface. A large, perfect cube of frosted ice slowly rose into the air as the monster seemed to study it.

"So… it can control the ice? Why isn't it attacking?" Hatra asked.

"Maybe it's a density thing? I mean, it probably can't control blood, otherwise we'd be in trouble. Maybe it just hasn't seen ice before?" Sapphire started to rationalize.

"It doesn't matter, just lay into it!" Jean shouted.

Aside from some curious glances at the cube, the group moved to capitalize on the opening. Needles of mirror flew from the water, finding purchase against inanimate stone. A blaze of starlight was lazily deflected away from the ice. Grasping roots began to grow as Sapphire seeded the iceberg with vines to reinforce their temporary hold on the construct. Hatra kept up freezing the water around them.

Gio didn't like the sudden stillness, nor the floating cube. He nervously circulated his mana, keeping his weight centered on the balls of his feet. Sapphire stayed nearby him, reaching out with her magic from afar to guide the roots as she spoke to Gio.

"I don't like this." She said, mirroring his thoughts.

"Me either. I don't know why it isn't at least tossing it at us… something is wrong." Gio answered.

A sound reverberated through the ice. Thin white lines began tracing through the cube in patterns that would put spell circuits to shame.

Gio's mind raced as he mentally calculated the shapes forming underneath the ice.

Sweeping lines and harsh angles. Curves, points, and… needles.

"EVERYBODY, GET BEHIND ME!" Gio yelled in alarm.

Ice separated at the lines, forming a hail of small blades that shot toward the group like bullets. Flakes of ice cut at Gio's exposed skin like jagged razors as he tried to withstand the storm of knives. Gio fought to deflect what he could, and Hatra sprayed out a sweltering wall of chemical flames to try and melt what he couldn't catch. Jean caught on and began spraying Angelfire toward the onslaught of icy projectiles, but they just wouldn't stop.

The cube was being disassembled, but the construct was being shockingly efficient, not wasting a single snowflake of ice.

Thin blades of crystalline ice rained down upon the group, and Gio felt himself grow nauseous as Chandrika's movements became strained as she took a glancing blow. The curse from the statue had nearly taken over, and he was currently the statue's sole focus.

Gio's mirror mana reserves were plummeting, as his shields of reflective magic struggled to keep up with the endless torrent of minuscule blades. The construct began to alter the shapes and sizes of the projectiles, creating needle-thin rods as well as multi-pointed stars that flew at increasingly inconvenient angles.

A whirling blade flew in a corkscrew pattern, evading Gio's magic and carving a long line lengthwise down Gio's forearm, drawing a pained curse. The cold edge was so keen that it took a moment for blood to flow, but once it did, Gio's torn shirtsleeve began to bloom with red.

From behind the construct, a rapid-fire burst of needles shot toward the trident as Rio managed to disrupt the casting, creating a crack in the gemstone at the trident's core. The half-depleted cube of ice fell gracelessly into the water.

Splunk.

The construct's head whirled around its body to look for the threat, even as the rest of it raised two more cubes from the massive iceberg that its body was caught in. Both cubes began sparkling with white lines, indicating that the construct had begun carving them into a redoubling of icy blades.

The group's eyes collectively widened, and Gio's breath caught as he clutched his bloodied arm.

Sapphire scrabbled over Gio, nearly knocking him over. She reached out with a pleading arm, casting a desperate spell.

"[Sublimate]!" the girl screamed.

The ice in front of them fizzled, starting with the two cubes. A fog erupted over the water as the ice began to turn directly into gas.

The statue stilled yet again.

"Oh, dead gods in the damn garden, please tell me that it can't use water vapor." Sapphire panted.