Rising Kite - A story from the world of HWFWM

“I will admit that I thought that I had you there for a moment, Pathbreaker,” Chime of Morrow’s Bounty said after collecting herself. “You actually possessing the famed power of Immortality was a rather unpleasant surprise.”

Kite thought that he could detect a bit of a sour hint in the draconian’s otherwise perfectly pleasant demeanor, one which Chime had kept all throughout their bout in the private sparring arena. It had been an odd experience to feel such outward equanimity from a person while she was showing off a brutal yet surprisingly sophisticated fighting style.

Kite suspected that Chime possessed both the claw and tail essences, as her dragon-like body was empowered in a way akin to Soul’s. And much like when sparring with said celestine, many of Kite’s dispelling powers had less to work with, robbing him of his usual advantage in leaving his opponent floundering without parts of their powers or turning their powers into a trap.

“Senior sister is most skilled,” Kite agreed. “Fortune smiled upon me that I recently had the chance of training quite rigorously against someone with a slightly similar power set. It let me shore up some weaknesses in my technique.”

“Oh? Anyone that you think would be a good fit for the sect? With your recommendation, I’m sure that we would at least consider meeting them,” Chime said, once more pouncing on the chance of improving the strength of her organization.

“In some ways, she would probably be the most perfect student you could imagine,” Kite said as he thought about it. “Almost too perfect. Soul seems dedicated to her path to an even greater extent than what you have described. She… doesn’t seem to do too well with people. Unless she is fighting them.”

“Well, at least send this Soul our way, should you have the chance. And I assure you that you too will find even stronger opponents from my sect. Of our inner disciples, I am only of middling ranks,” Chime assured.

Kite felt a mix of anticipation and trepidation at the thought, especially as Chime herself was in the top quarter of the city’s silver-rankers already.

“In regards to that… This junior might be presumptuous, but I do hope that the details of my little fallback might be kept between us?” Kite asked, knowing that the answer probably wouldn’t be what he hoped.

“In that, junior brother, I can at least partially acquiesce. Only my fellow sect members will partake of the information, as doing anything else would be breaking my oaths to them,” Chime said, looking thoughtful before her fanged mouth turned upwards in a grin. “However, we have no compunctions in letting the Thunderous Soul or the Heavenly Shadow find out in their own time.”

“Then I thank senior sister for the courtesy,” Kite replied, bowing as he decided to be content with what he had.

“And I repeat that you are most welcome to take us up on our offer any time, Pathbreaker. You were leaving soon, no?”

“The day after tomorrow,” Kite confirmed.

“Then I shall work hard and look forward to our rematch,” Chime said as they stopped outside the sparring arena. They could both sense several curious eyes upon them, would-be onlookers who had not been allowed in. Kite would have expected some prying eyes, but Chime had insisted on the privacy arrays of the private sparring halls. Not wanting to broadcast one’s rarer techniques to the world was not entirely uncommon, after all.

The draconian bowed politely to Kite, who returned the gesture. “Take care, Pathbreaker. Until we meet again.” Then, she was off, ignoring the questions of some of the people rushing up to her as she crossed the small plaza outside. Kite also took the chance to duck behind a corner.

“Let us see if we can find some peace and quiet, Glint,” he murmured to the carp peeking out of her flask. “The day after tomorrow, we will hopefully be on our way. It has been profitable, true, but even I am getting a bit tired of duels. Let us do our best to actually keep our profile low, move to a new hotel so as to not be disturbed, and have an enjoyable last day in Heavenward.”

“Tell me what you have found out, child,” Slate of Absolute Intent said as Mirror entered her study. While the gold-ranked elder was sitting idly sipping a cup of tea, Mirror herself was dressed for the upcoming task; combat robes, the protective version of the Heavenly Shadow’s sect medallion and all of the other things she would need stored in her personal storage space.

“At once, elder,” Mirror said, bowing. “My sources managed to track the Pathbreaker's latest change of lodgings, and Fortune is smiling upon us as he chose to spend this night at the Vibrant Verse.”

“And why is that fortunate, child?” elder Slate asked indulgently.

“The Vibrant Verse has a secluded garden that should be perfect for our purposes. Their owner is a local who has been ever supportive for our cultural independence. I believe that he has soon even saved up enough for essences, hoping for his oldest daughter to join one of the sects in the future. Having that assistance should make it easy enough to get the Pathbreaker where we want him.”

Elder Slate nodded in agreement. “It seems that your preparations have gone well, child. While probably unnecessary, I will make sure that you are not disturbed. We can always hope that the young man can be convinced to see what he has no doubt been manipulated and groomed into, but I will trust that you have chosen your support with his path in mind?”

“I have, elder. He may be skilled, but he is only one man. With disciples Reed and Surge alongside me, subduing him should only be a matter of time if it proves necessary.”

“Then things are in place. Take pride, child. While this blow will be but a minor one to the adventure society here in Hua-Xi, it will still be felt. And perhaps even more important; we also get to liberate a misled son of our kingdom.”

As the sun streamed in through the wide windows of Kite’s suite, he was lost in concentration. From where he sat, slightly hovering above the floor as he meditated, Kite tried to see everything. Some might have said that he already did, his perception power allowing for the ever-useful all-round vision. But much like with the perception of a normal ranker, keeping everything clear was quite taxing.

Even so, Kite took some time most days to practice, emptying his mind as he tried to widen his field of absolute focus and attention, from the slightest gleam of the sun in polished wood the the light motions of the thin curtains, he did his utmost to actually take it all in rather than let his brain filter. That gleam he would have overlooked could prove to be the blade of a stealthy opponent, after all. And the clarity also just felt right somehow.

Kite’s serene state was broken, however, as his aura senses picked up the aura of a normal-ranked woman getting close to this door, her intent to announce herself clear in her aura. Even without prying deeper, Kite’s spiritual equivalent of a passing glance revealed a bit of flustered nervousness and attraction in her aura as well. He put it aside, however, as it wasn’t something personal toward him, but rather an involuntary reaction many normal rankers had when encountering those who had undergone the magical perfecting process.

“Still, imagine what this must be like for Serene?” Kite mused to himself as he sunk to the floor, rising just as the light knock came at his door. “As a quite pretty celestine with a fourfold aura, sensing the lust of others must be a near constant.”

It was indeed the hotel owner’s daughter on the other side, who bowed politely.

“My Lord, as the day is a fine one, we took the liberty of arranging breakfast for you in the secluded garden. I am sure that you will find it most pleasing.”

The woman did her best to keep her eyes averted, and Kite did not call her out on the few glances that strayed his way. Instead he nodded, agreeing with her statement. “A pleasant surprise indeed. Lead the way, and give my regards to your father for the consideration.”

She led him through corridors of the finely crafted building, keeping demurely silent. Kite’s mind wandered as he trailed her, thinking about how to spend what might as well be his last day in the capital. Those thoughts were scattered as his guide opened a door out to a surprisingly spacious inner garden, with plenty of decorative trees and sculpted bushes to provide privacy. But it was the slight tingle of the privacy array he passed through that had him the most surprised.

“This does explain the rather steep cost of the establishment,” Kite thought, only picking out part of the formations involved. “I bet that Braid would dismiss them, though. He-”

He was interrupted as he felt another presence in the garden; a silver rank aura which was tightly controlled but not hidden. It gave off the feeling of the sun reflected back at him from a chamber of mirrors, each image differing from the one before.

“Will I have company?” he asked, turning around to look at the owner’s daughter. She looked confused, barely seeming to have heard Kite’s question as she was instead focusing on another person who had approached her in the corridor.

“Father? What-” she asked, but the rest was cut off as the owner of the hotel stepped out, bowing briefly to Kite before sliding shut the door leading out. Kite was just about to step back inside and demand an explanation when another voice called to him from the center of the secluded garden.

“Pathbreaker, please join me for breakfast.”

The voice was feminine and polite, its source the same reflective silver-ranked aura Kite had felt before.

“And its owner’s presence here means that I probably was not as circumspect in my change of lodgings as I thought. Seems like there will be at least one duel today too,” Kite thought helplessly. He did consider just leaving, but decided against it. The owner and his daughter were probably going to lose out if he didn’t meet whoever set this up, and Kite hoped that they at least stood to gain something from being dragged into the games of the mighty.

A human woman waited for him at a table in the garden’s midst, laden with food and surrounded by pleasant greenery. She was of silver rank, and a bit more advanced than Kite himself. Her carefully arranged ringlets of dark hair indicated that she had put some thought into her appearance for this meeting, shining silver earrings complimenting her looks nicely. But the white and gray combat robes she was wearing with the sect medallion of the Heavenly Shadow sect on full display quashed any lingering hope Kite might have that this was merely a social call. Kite also had an eerie sense of slight familiarity, as if he had met someone similar to his unbidden companion.

“While I had hoped to spend the last day in the capital in relative peace, it seems that the heavens do not wish for me to go without a duel today,” Kite said in way of greeting, sitting down across from the woman. While the thought of facing yet another opponent was still a bit exciting, it warred with the weariness the constant challenges had left in him during these past days. “May I inquire the name of my would-be opponent?”

“I think you misunderstand the purpose of this meeting, Pathbreaker. I do not have the qualifications to challenge you, as my ranking is not sufficient,” she answered, taking a sip of tea with delicate precision. “As for my name, you might recognize it in part. My name is Pristine Mirror, disciple of the Heavenly Shadow sect.”

Kite froze slightly at the mention of the Pristine family name, his surprise obvious.

“I… see…” he said, suddenly even more wary that he was not wearing his armor. While he had splurged on Braid weaving lighter protective enchantments into the loose blue silk jacket and dark pants that were one of his casual outfits, Kite knew them to be quite insufficient should any real combat break out.

Apparently picking up on the tension, Pristine Mirror waved a hand as if to dismiss something unimportant. “While I admit that I have been tasked with balancing out the stain on our family name your interference brought, that is a task beneath my purpose here. Whatever you did to have my aunt and uncle up in arms is not relevant to me being here.”

While this did put Kite slightly more at ease, it also gave rise to questions. And further worries.

“Then may I inquire as to why the disciple is here, if not to attempt to set right the grievances of your family? Because heavens as my witness, they were and remain in the wrong.”

“I am here because you are about to do something foolish, Pathbreaker, enough so that the elders of my sect felt that we needed to intervene. You should not, under any circumstance, leave for this Task Group Gauntlet,” Pristine Mirror said severely.

The mentioning of Kite’s destination, undisclosed to anyone but the directors of the local branch and their staff, was unexpected enough that it took a second for Kite to center himself again, implications of her statements buzzing around his mind.

“To know of that, you must have some very good sources,” Kite responded, taking the time to gather his aura into even more of a wall than before. The conversation had not gone how he expected, and the change was not for the better. “Even so, I fail to see the relevance to either you or your sect, disciple.”

“It is of the greatest relevance to us, Pathbreaker. To all of the sects, in fact. I’d even venture so far as to say to every citizen in this kingdom. Whatever the society has told you, of opportunities or rewards, you have been misled. They claim to bring stability and security, but we have long seen the poison in their words. Through that stability, they mean to suffocate what makes our culture and our warriors unique, molding young prodigies away from the culture in which they were born. You are being misled and deceived to serve them directly, or even worse, to return as a weapon directed against our throats… It cannot be allowed to stand.”

Kite couldn’t help his growing incredulousness as she spoke, as from what he could gather, Pristine Mirror was serious.

“Disciple, I knew that there has long been tension between the sects and the adventure society, but from your words… I truly had not fathomed that it was to this extent.”

“Of course you would not. They would not let you know, the adventure society that is. Molding a warrior is not always an overt process, and I am glad that you can at least see your own lacking knowledge,” Mirror said.

“One should always strive to reflect upon one’s self, as many of us are just proverbial frogs in our well,” Kite acknowledged. “But you misunderstand me, disciple. I believe that the one deepest in their own well here is you. Because while I aim to widen these horizons of mine, your words make it seem that both you and your sect just wished to close yours off, claiming the walls of the well to be the only true and immutable state of things,” he said, raising a hand to forestall Mirror’s protest.

“I am aware that the adventure society isn’t without its complexities as well, as no institution seems to be able to avoid politicking and only stay true to its purpose. But I have met plenty of good people both inside it and outside of it, and their contracts and structure has guided me to protect and help many. That is more than can be said of many of the sects I have encountered so far.

You paint a picture of a world of absolutes, disciple. I may still be young, but I have found that through accepting the scales of gray, I can find purpose. Your warnings will be noted, but this is something which is up to me and my path.”

Kite suspected that this argument could have become a lengthy one had he let it, so he chose the more direct route. The disciple was at least there talking to him, but he got the creeping feeling that he should try and leave the capital as soon as possible.

“I might even have to crawl back to the director and take up her offer of lodgings,” he had time to think in the silence which followed him, in no uncertain terms, renouncing the disciple’s view of the way things were.

He sensed a ripple in Pristine Mirror’s aura as she seemed to be steeling herself. “That is a shame, Pathbreaker. Apparently, it will take a much longer conversation for us to undo the way you have been led to think.”

“I believe that we are done here, disciple,” Kite said, rising to his feet. And just in time, too. Through his expanded vision, he noted a rustle of leaves and a streak of motion aiming straight for his back. It moved fast, too fast for him to turn and even too fast to finish his chanted “ward”. But not too fast for his thoughts, and the surge of mana which followed.

Metallic tattoos lit up all over Kite’s body, and four semi-corporeal arms formed in an instant. One reached back and clasped the wrist of the outstretched arm of his swift would-be assailant, another grasped the still open suppression collar in said arm. In one smooth motion which Kite thought would have made Soul proud, the other two of his conjured arms reached back and yanked the approaching assailant out of her trajectory, dragging her into the spin he had already begun.

The surprised sect disciple was swept around in a swift arc, used to intercept a trio of stone slugs shot at Kite from another direction before thrown directly towards Pristine Mirror. The woman looked dismissively at the human projectile, and Kite felt her mana surge before whatever teleportation she was attempting was cut short by the trio of vortices suddenly directing their focus against her. This gifted Kite a pleasing look of surprise before the thrown disciple collided with her, sending them both staggering backwards rather indignantly.

Still, silver rank gifted them reflexes and balance enough to quickly right themselves, landing steadily just a split second later as the third assailant came hovering out of the nearby bushes, stone spheres spinning around him. Three silver-rankers; Pristine Mirror, the elven woman who had tried to collar Kite and the smolder with the stone powers. All wore the sect robes and medallions of the Heavenly Shadow sect.

Feeling the remnants of two dissolving concealing formations led Kite to think, or at least hope, that there weren't more of them hiding in the secluded garden. Especially since he felt the arrays surrounding the gardens intensify, a layer of protection coming alive. It was only a civilian building, and Kite suspected that he could break through them with a bit of effort and time. But with three hostile silver-rankers surrounding him, time to expend such effort was not something he expected in the near future.

“So you would resort to kidnapping those who do not share your worldviews, disciple? You are going quite all-in on proving me right,” he said, gauging the situations while trying to formulate some kind of plan.

“We will do what is needed to save Hua-Xi and our way of life, as well as a wayward son,” Pristine Mirror shot back. “Don’t make this harder on yourself than it has to be.”

Kite looked at the collar still held in one spectral hand, yanked free when he threw the disciple trying to clasp it around his neck. “It seems like self-delusion runs in the family, Pristine Mirror. Your aunt was also quite adamant in telling herself that she was just ‘guarding the queen’s trial’.”

“He’s draining our mana,” the elven woman hissed as vigorous green energies started sparking through her body, her outline blurring. “Don’t let him stall!”

“Wall!”

Her lightning-quick charge was interrupted by the sudden appearance of the force walls from Leyline Warding in the usual forest of segments which had long become Kite’s go-to tactic when facing multiple opponents. The segment cracked ominously by the impact, the elven disciple having caught herself on hands and knees while more launched stone spheres were already mowing into another set of barriers.

As he retreated a bit further to see if he could bait his swiftest opponent into following him deeper into the labyrinth, Kite saw that Pristine Mirror herself had not started toward him. The reason why became clear as he saw her lips move, and the painful unease of an ongoing, damaging affliction started spreading throughout his body.

“That.. is bad.” Kite thought as it was suddenly not only him that had put a timer on the battle. Retreating had also just become a trap, so he changed directions and started to move in a curve around the garden's outer edge to once more get closer to the affliction-user. Pristine Mirror needed to be taken out before she would end his chances herself.

Apparently, his opponents knew this too. Both the elf and the runic disciples stayed together as they moved to intercept. Not able to bait one out, Kite faced the duo together, even as he felt more of the afflictions joining the first. While some movement-restricting ones slid off his increased resistances, the sense of impending doom was still all too prominent.

“Surge of emerald vigor!”

The elven woman became a green streak as she charged, zigzagging through Kite’s hindering barriers. With her came a small wave of roiling destructive energies, unleashed as the tip of her long, straight sword impacted the barrier of Heaven-and-Void Warding. Kite grit his teeth through the pain as he redirected his twin wards to swerve around, intercepting a cluster of stone projectiles which were sent ricocheting wildly around the garden. And, for the first time since arriving in Heavenward, Kite started to fully employ the conjured arms of his mantle.

The elven disciple had just prepared for a follow-up thrust when she was suddenly forced to sway to the side to avoid a projected stab from one of Matra’s descendants, the conjured copied sword held in an equally conjured arm. Then came another, and another before Kite’s staff caught her in the side. She managed to turn with the blow enough so that she was not sent flying, but the other two projected attacks from the opportunistic additional arms were enough to send her scurrying back.

Kite would not let her, however, an empowered step carrying up to her yet again where she had landed in an intersection of force walls. She gasped in discomfort as another of Kite’s staff-swings caught her, the strike and chakra implosion ripping mana from the elf while Disrupting Strike once more scattered the gathering vital boons which she used to empower herself.

He had just managed to deliver another series of attacks, their angles trying to box his foe into a corner, when Kite was forced to abort the offensive and dive to the side. A moment later, spheres of stone shot through the air where he had just been, their force cracking and sundering nearby force walls. The smolder disciple came charging after his attacks, hovering through the air with great speed while surrounded by even more solid projectiles.

Kite had initially thought about trying to shatter some of the stone orbs using Pattern-Shattering Counter, but his magical perception had warned him that while the stones were shaped through magic, soil and gravel ripped from the earth before being condensed and fused, the end result was not inherently magical enough to disperse through such means. And the force they carried damaged his barriers with concerning efficiency.

“They planned this well,” he thought, gritting his teeth as he was once more forced to switch approaches, abandoning his approach towards Pristine Mirror, the other disciples being enough of a threat and hindrance to make his pace feel glacial. Gathering his will and condensing his aura, Kite made some choices. “It is time to try and live up to the potential Soul tried to bring out in me.”

He danced in behind yet another set of force walls, stone projectiles trailing while the elven disciple tried for a flanking maneuver as she gathered power. Kite suspected she possessed the hunt essence and that her purpose there had mainly been the ambush, with skirmishing as a secondary role. But the smolder man; that was where the real threat to his approach to Pristine Mirror was.

“Glint, it is time,” he murmured, before striking out thrice. Two of the projected strikes from his spectral arms were directed at the elf to keep her further skittering back, and the third, using Immutable Echo, struck the barrier segment in front of him. It shattered, the wave of resonating force turning stone projectiles into unstable gravel stinging where it hit but not enough to break the skin. The wake of the resonating wave, Kite sent another trio of projected attacks towards the smolder. The disciple ripped sheets of stone from the ground to block the attacks, but that was of less importance as it gave Kite a moment to chant a spell.

“Dissolve the Patterns of Power.”

Force walls winked out of existence before the conical ripple that heralded Kite’s advance. While it didn’t remove the stones of his foe, it ripped apart the magic controlling them. And left them crumbling to nothing as Kite ran straight through the stone, Implacable Motion sundering the obstacles and turning them into a burst of shrapnel that shredded the greenery around the garden.

The smolder man looked suitably surprised when Kite came charging through his defenses, but quickly tried to muster a response. Stone chains burst from the ground only to flail ineffectually against Kite’s form before being ripped apart as the dark trail of Void-Sunders-Firmament sheared through the stone links before it struck the smolder man as well, Cleave the Spirit allowing him to target his foe’s mana reserves to add further pressure. The disciple tried to mount a defense again and again, but the arms of Kite’s mantle were in constant motion. Matra’s descendants appeared in spectral hands to deliver flickering strikes to further box the man in, ripping more mana from him or delivering more special attacks whenever possible.

The elven disciple tried to intervene multiple times, but the barriers of Heaven-and-Void Warding and the occasional projected strike kept her at bay. Kite tried to ignore the mounting disruptive force damage within him as Pristine Mirror’s afflictions kept stacking up.

“I must be the relentless attrition and the impenetrable wall,” he thought, remembering Soul’s words. “Weather any cracks and let them show only determination beneath.”

Then, an opportunity showed itself, and Kite chose. Just as the smolder had chosen to accept a pair of hits to create a modicum of distance, the elf struck. A flash of green sent her flying out from what little remained of the nearby decorative garden just as the smolder cast what Kite felt was a potent spell.

“Collapse of the Imperial Mountain!”

Stone, earth and debris started rising from below, condensing into a white boulder of stone in the air above. It took only a split second, magical seals forming on the boulder only to burst apart, the stone shattering alongside it to create a torrent of white shards launching downward, their pressure something way beyond what nature alone could manage.

Caught between two serious attacks, one would normally find it most meaningful to try and escape. But as he was, with his path and the tools at his disposal. Kite attacked. With some help.

The elven disciple’s momentum was suddenly arrested by a globe of restraining water, Glint having stayed in reserve until a moment such as this arose. While the woman immediately tried to work herself free, the seconds that would take cost her the opportunity and much more. Kite stepped down hard as he leaned into his swings, arms a blur for a moment as three simultaneous attacks were projected outward, the call of “Void!” his battlecry.

Kite’s staff shimmered with blue cracks as he used Potential of Stolen Power to empower Chakra Implosion, the swing seemingly breaking the air like a thin mirror torn to pieces. This was accompanied by another two instances of the same mana-draining special attack, all three of the projected slices impacting the smolder man at the same time. A total of five mana-draining attacks struck the beleaguered man at once while the dark aperture of Gate of Nihility appeared in the air above them, greedily devouring the torrent of white stone.

At the same time, one of Kite’s spectral arms not part of the attack on the smolder had swung a single, wave-bladed kris toward the restrained elven woman. And unlike the other times during this fight, this one was no mere conjuration. Matra, Mother of the Bladed Brood, swung once, and that unassuming swing unleashed an echo of all the attacks her descendants had delivered during Kite’s many duels since being called out in the trade pavilion. Waves of ethereal sword slashes, twisting arcs and whirling points of cutting and piercing intent, burst outward in a growing cone. The caught elven disciple could not move or dodge as they cut through the water and tore into her. This left her flying away from Kite like a bloodied comet carried upon the crest of the unfurling wave, her momentum both devoured and reversed by the actions of Matra’s ever hungry brood.

“Devouring light within!”

Pristine Mirror cast yet another of her damaging afflictions. Normally, she would have already complemented this with others that hampered or debilitated, but those had rolled off the outcast called Pathbreaker like mist before the first breeze of dawn.

Mirror was a skirmisher, a warrior of elusive grace who danced around her foes while watching them grow more sluggish before succumbing. And she was currently conflicted due to two reasons.

First, if she kept going much longer, the Pathbreaker would probably die no matter the outcome of this battle. The notion that she could even doubt said outcome would have felt absurd before their attempt at subduing the outcast began, but here she was. Mirror had to choose; to continue to lay on the afflictions on a man who had so far not shown any consistent way of removing them during his duels so far. While his dark familiar could do it sparingly, that would not be enough to hinder the amount of afflictions Mirror could lock onto the man with just one more spell. But her mission was to subdue and capture him, not obliterate him. Would the face of the sect be deemed more important than a wayward son of Hua-Xi? Mirror did not know, and grand elder Slate had not sent her any more instructions, even as her predicament should be obvious to one of the grand elder’s station and wisdom.

Second, Mirror was starting to wonder if the name Pathbreaker had in fact not been as filled with ridiculous levels of hubris as she had initially thought. Neither of her two fellow disciples had been able to land substantial hits through the defense of the man, especially with the addition of those previously unseen spectral arms. All of their significant attacks had either fallen flat or been subverted by the man’s dispelling effects. And when the Pathbreaker had taken that step to counterattack just now, rippling attacks shooting out to each side like cataclysmic wings while the dark gate appeared above him like some halo of nothingness, Mirror couldn’t help but admire the indomitable decisiveness in the aesthetic of that moment.

It was with that image clear in her mind’s eye that Mirror made her choice, further driven home when disciple Cipher’s rotating stones fell to the ground below as the smolder man slumped, barely conscious. This could not go on.

“Fractured mirror, bring manifold misfortunes!”

A tall, full-length mirror appeared at her side, but its shimmering surface only showed the form of the Pathbreaker as he spun towards disciple Singer, the elven woman trying to slink away behind what scarce cover remained to regain an opportunity to ambush. In the mirror, the glow of the afflictions suffusing the Pathbreaker shone like blue and purple light, plenty left even after his familiar’s ministrations earlier. Then the surface of the mirror cracked into three pieces, each showing the same image before the images flowed together, their identical forms overlapping seamlessly. But the glow of the afflictions was not similarly affected. They were instead added together, leaving the Pathbreaker a bonfire of her power as it ate him from within. With the amount of afflictions now tripled, locked behind other illusory afflictions which needed to be cleansed before one could get to the damaging ones, the outcast’s fate was sealed even as he seemed to be dealing with disciple Singer rather handedly when all of his limbs could focus on the singular target.

“I hope this was along your wishes, grand elder. I chose this for the sake of the sect,” Mirror murmured aloud, hoping that grand elder Slate would hear her.

“If that was for the sect, it only means that your sect isn’t very nice,” a male voice suddenly said from behind the mirror, even though nothing nearby had previously registered to her senses. “And neither was that spell of yours. But I believe that little adopted brother over there will have some way to surprise you. He seems to be pretty good at that, wouldn’t you say?”