Chapter 117: The Mirror of Self

Chapter 117: The Mirror of Self

Hearing that, Murphy just stared at the thing standing in front of him.

He had no answers, but he knew one thing that if he were also in its place, alone for centuries without a single communication, he’d have gone mad by now.

Its shapeless eyes locked on Murphy, who seemed unfazed by its horrifying presence.

After a while, Murphy put his hand on his face and pulled the mask out, shifting back to his true identity. "I understand what you have been through, but I’m not the Lightless you seek."

The creature stared at the face and spoke. "I can’t remember him; I forgot his face, but you have it, so you are."

Mo Fei exhaled and tried to keep his composure. "You weren’t forgotten, but he was just gone."

"Gone... where?"

"I don’t know where."

"I was the second, the shadow of his Light. I was sent here because of my chaotic nature... but was it my fault that I was the darkness?" The tendrils around its neck writhed as it let out a screech. It couldn’t speak, but Mo Fei could hear the words, even if all it was speaking was a roar. "And then he left just like that after sending me to this hell. He never returned. I watched, I waited, and I protected the world that no one remembers."

Its crimson, shapeless eyes narrowed. "The Divine Serpent... my counterpart was loved, and it was remembered, even now... it got a new master, but me? Who should I serve...? I was forgotten."

Mo Fei averted his gaze, looking at his feet. He knew now that anger wasn’t meaningless... run, run more, run even more; how long to run from the worlds, how long to run from the inevitable? "I don’t know what happened, but it was not what you think."

"Why was it that my chaotic nature brought me to my fall? Why did I become the devil?"

"You did not. I can’t offer when I don’t have anything to give... I know I was selfish when I came here only for the Mirror of Truth." Mo Fei took a few steps forward, his heart pounding inside.

"I know that someone will come for this; I have it." The Dragon muttered.

Mo Fei stopped in his tracks and looked at a living being that had been forced into isolation, then blamed for the isolation itself. "You’re right. I came here selfish. I wanted the Mirror for my Descent."

He gestured toward the creature. "This is your world. Your question—’why was my nature my downfall’—is the same question I’m asking. That wouldn’t matter for anyone and only matters to me."

Mo Fei took another step forward. "The Lightless left yet I don’t know why... But that doesn’t mean he abandoned you; if I were him, I wouldn’t have either."

The creature’s tendrils stilled slightly as it moved closer.

"His burden. But you still want the Mirror." A pause. "Anyone would abandon chaos; anyone would abandon dark."

Mo Fei closed his eyes and took a step back, then looked at the creature, and finally he raised his hand. "Everyone has guilt, but a guilt that teaches you is useful; a guilt that keeps you kneeling would obviously teach you to only hate yourself instead of changing."

"Why?"

"Because this world only tells you to succeed, it only teaches you to chase it, even when they lose themselves along the way, but I’d rather lose as myself than win as someone I no longer recognize. Just like that, be yourself, be darkness; that is you. If someone denies it, then that won’t sell you cheap."

The dragon opened the golden mandible and let out a screech and moved toward him. "You don’t know what it meant to be here alone for thousands of years, wandering around completely alone, living in hell while I looked at heaven."

"Yeah, I don’t... but you are the spirit world too, which means I should accept you."

"Great Master!" The Serpent’s voice echoed in his mind. "You don’t know anything about what you are up against."

"That shouldn’t change my choices, Divine Serpent." He muttered as his hand stilled at the place.

The Dragon moved forward, its head stopping near Mo Fei, who extended his hand toward it and put it on its cold, golden armor. "I know you must have never backed down. You’ll stay with me from now on; tell me then... will you?"

The Dragon flew beside him and wrapped its body around him as if seeking warmth in its cold body. The previous Lightless and the current Lightless were both the same to it, even if it had forgotten the name.

Divine Serpent murmured in his mind. "You managed to stop its anger."

"It wasn’t angry after all."

The dragon loosened its grip and flew high, while the Divine Serpent watched it from the light part of the spirit world with an unnamed expression; it slightly nodded even though it knew that the dragon was still envious of the love.

The dragon drifted through the dark, moving through the islands. Mo Fei jumped over the debris, following it in the unusual gravity.

It stopped near a floating house made of crystal, half broken, as it moved its tendrils inside and pulled out a mirror, then moved it toward Mo Fei and whispered. "Here... Great Master."

"Good job, Divine Dragon of Darkness."

He grabbed the mirror from its tendrils and looked around. "How do I return now?"

Giygogagohgwooh!!!

The scream shook the dimension as a large portal opened through the gateway.

"You may call out to me anytime you wish." Mo Fei murmured to it quietly.

"I shall fix the world, Great Master."

"It’d be great, make it a better place to live for you." With that, Mo Fei wore the mask again, shifting his face back to Murphy as he jumped out of the portal, and suddenly fell down on the ground from the sudden change in the gravity.

He stood and dusted off his clothes, then looked back at the portal where the dragon stared back. He lifted his hat and gave it a smile as the Divine Dragon nodded and screamed one last time before closing the portal. "It was an unexpected moment."

***

Time passed as he returned to a city, got a room in a restaurant, and settled himself there.

He pulled the mirror out as he sat on the bed and looked inside, but he saw no reflection there. It was entirely empty. "Divine Serpent, is this piece of sh!t defected."

"Don’t call me that!"

The sudden voice from the mirror pulled his mind back, but his face remained straight as he looked at it. "Who are you?"

"Artifact 0-3, I don’t have a name, but call me Vennisa."

"You are an object."

"Objects have names too, sir."

"I believe, so tell me, how are you going to help me in my descent."

The feminine voice paused for a moment, thinking of how to answer. "Maybe I can help, but everything has two aspects."

"You are going to bargain?"

"I don’t need money; I can’t eat."

"Answer then."

The voice exhaled a sigh and then answered. "I’ll ask questions in return."

"Let me see through it then." Murphy hung the mirror on a wall and stepped back.

The voice muttered again. "Look in the mirror now."

That time, when he looked at it, he finally saw his reflection, which wasn’t Murphy, but it was Mo Fei, yet his clothes were different, and his hair were open unlike his usual pony tailed phase. He wore a white outfit with golden edges, and his eyes were also green instead of brown.

A soft thud hit his ear. Mo Fei pulled the mask out again as his gaze dropped on the floor; three spectral plants tore through the ground. They grew in a hyper-accelerated blur, vines twisting until they bloomed into three distinct flowers.

[Past]

A withered, bleeding lily.

[Present]

A blood-red rose wrapped in thorns.

[Future]

The lotus.

"Unusual... I see something entirely different." Vennisa’s voice grew heavy as it echoed through the mirror. "A soul with two shadows... two... minds? So, what would you like to see first? Your past, your present, or your future?"

Mo Fei’s heart gave a heavy throb. The artifact knew his true name. He adjusted his collar with a long breath. "The past." He knew better than to trust the future shown by a Grade 0 artifact, but the past was concrete; it could be used as an anchor.

"A question for a question." Vennisa whispered. The withered, bleeding lily on the left burst into a pale, ghostly flame. "Tell me... when you looked into the eyes of the Dragon of Darkness, did you feel pity?"

Mo Fei stared at the burning lily. "A familiarity, maybe I found it similar to me."

"An acceptable answer." Inside the silver glass, Mo Fei’s green-eyed reflection dissolved, and the scene shifted to a sprawling, alien skyline under a shattered moon. A figure in a tattered dark green coat and a fedora stood on the edge of a precipice, holding a broken lantern that leaked light, who stood in front of the door where a thousand eyes stared at the figure through the tentacle-shaped mist.

The figure turned its head toward the screen of the mirror, but it had no face.

Mo Fei stumbled back half a step, his temples throbbing with a sudden, sharp migraine. The vision snapped shut as the bleeding lily turned to grey ash.

"That... that shouldn’t happen. I looked at someone else’s past, but why?" Vennisa spoke while the thorns on the middle rose tightened, and a red nectar dripped onto the floor. "Your past is a locked door even I cannot fully pry into it. Shall we move to the present?"

Mo Fei clenched his temples as he looked at the mirror. "The future." Mo Fei commanded, narrowing his eyes.