After completing the Emperor’s orders, I immediately visited the Empire’s Secret Place before heading down to the underground.
It was not just to obtain a reward; after all, the Secret Place is a mysterious location.
There must be something hidden by Duke Huangyeol, and that could be a clue to his identity or his secret plans.
So I came here, but…
[Oh]
[Wow, there’s a lot, haha]
[Let’s grab everything, let’s go]
[It’s a shame I can’t use Space]
[A mirror?]
[What is that?]
I stand in front of a mirror exuding a sinister aura.
The mirror, releasing a soft magical energy, begins to tremble and tries to capture my reflection.
It draws the contours of Lily with blue hair and depicts a fake version of me.
With a twisted face, I wear a strange expression.
“How arrogant.”
Crack!
─…!
As I condense the Holy Power of Destruction and spread it around, the mirror shudders and shatters, unable to withstand the energy of Extreme Holy.
The fake version disappears with a terrified expression.
[?]
[Oh, damn]
[???]
[This is really scary]
[What was that just now?]
[W-whoa]
[Huh]
[Was that a Doppelganger?]
Startled by the sudden disturbance, Ruslan rushed over in a panic.
“W-what is that?”
“This. Did Duke Huangyeol leave this?”
“Ah… I-I suppose so. Only members of the royal bloodline can tamper with the Secret Place in the first place…”
“……”
“Why, why do you ask?”
“The Demon Race’s artifacts are in the Secret Place…”
Duke Huangyeol is a complete Celestial.
Celestials and Demons are sworn enemies, desperate to kill each other.
Even aside from their nature, Holy Power and Magic Energy have a tendency to reject each other’s forms of Extreme consideration.
Yet Duke Huangyeol does not show typical Celestial behavior by employing the Magic Lord Karia.
“…You don’t consider Demons as enemies? Does that mean you can even use Demons if necessary?”
“Um…”
“Excuse me for a moment.”
“W-what?”
Boom!!!
I spread my Wings of Light.
Ruslan takes a startled step back.
With fierce Holy Power, I start to inspect each item in the Secret Place, one by one.
After a dazzling light sweeps through the Secret Place, I fold my wings.
“For now, besides the mirror, there’s nothing too dangerous. Although it might not be here.”
“Ugh…”
“We need to descend quickly.”
Now that I’ve discovered an artifact of the Demon Race, it’s certain that powers related to this artifact are spreading below as well.
‘Preservation is dangerous.’
The power of ‘Preservation’ belongs to the Upper level.
While its strength may lie in the Intermediate level, since it is classified as Upper-level power, everyone could get swept away if we’re not careful.
I plunged straight through the floor of the Secret Place and descended underground.
Ruslan stared blankly at the giant hole leading downward.
“…My house.”
KWA-GA-GA-GA-GA!!
[Lily?]
[LOL]
[Can we really just smash everything like this?]
[Oh wow]
[Breaking news! The Alliance broadcast has stopped completely!]
[What’s going on?]
[Why did the Alliance go silent?]
[All raid parties vanished except for those broadcasting outside?]
[???]
[I’ve taken refuge in Lily’s room~]
[Did the broadcast crash?]
[Why did parties 1, 2, and 3 all crash?]
[Are they all dead?]
[Lily’s room is getting crowded, LOL]
“It’s probably because we crossed over to a place where the broadcast can’t be activated.”
A path leading underground, wrapped in the holy aura of destruction.
As I descended vertically, various magic and demon beasts sprang up, but I ignored them, purifying everything as I went down.
“If you fall under the power of preservation, your mind gets sucked into the mirror. Your body stays behind, but since your mind is gone, that’s why the broadcast stopped.”
Preservation basically creates a clone of the target and makes the target ‘recognize’ the clone.
Once the target recognizes the cloned existence, it gets pulled into the mirror and preserved.
Since this is a rather cruel and terrifying power, demon race members with the power of preservation are mostly those who conduct experiments.
‘Most of the time, they set up exhibition halls.’
Locking countless creatures inside mirrors and constantly making clones of them for experimentation.
[It disappeared completely!]
[The body is gone, Lily.]
[The broadcast has stopped, I tell you!]
[Broadcast crash!!]
[Lily’s broadcast looks like it’s going down, LOL.]
[Wow, there are so many viewers, for real.]
“…It really disappeared?”
[Yep, yep, yep.]
[The broadcast is off.]
[The broadcast is off! The broadcast is off!]
[Isn’t there something wrong? LOL]
“Hmm…”
When a physical body gets preserved in the mirror, it’s when the mind of the previously pulled target ‘lost’ to the being in the mirror.
Since the demon race using upper-level powers are typically above the intermediates, it’s natural that the users can’t endure it.
‘But the mirror form is just itself?’
The cloned existence is itself.
In other words, even if they get sucked into the mirror, it shouldn’t be an opponent they can’t defeat.
The demon race will try to break them down mentally in various ways, but there’s a ‘system’ here, so there’s some degree of mental protection.
“That’s a bit weird. How could not just one or two, but all of them fall so quickly?”
Was the level of the users only this much?
Even without top-tier users like Yena or Leo…
SDVIMVFoanVzY1YwSVhjamMzUkt1YkU5K2Zzb2pjcGdEU3o1ZEJZRy94YkxnZVFEK3poN1FUUjQvRGJHNjh0bw
“……”
[Hurry and save us…]
[The only remaining hope is “Lily.”]
[Rankers, please!]
[Damn, it’s Lily again.]
[How could I get support and still get ambushed from the start? Ugh.]
[Sheesh.]
[The Angel Guild should have come.]
I took out my spear.
I was already descending at a sufficient speed, but I needed to pick up the pace a bit more.
If my guess is correct, it’s not just the users who have suffered.
The spear twisted, and the Holy Power of Destruction created a storm.
“The Roar of the Spear.”
─…!
─!
─!!!
I flew forward, grinding the magic and demon beasts in my path along with the storm.
■
Thud!
I arrived in a space filled with artifacts of the Demon Race at a rapid pace.
It felt like a mirror room.
This place, filled with my face, had seen everyone disappear, but there were plenty of traces left from their recent presence.
Thousands and thousands of mirrors reflected my twisted smile.
I lifted my spear, meeting their gaze.
“What are you looking at?”
“The Eye of the Spear.”
Krrrrr!!!
─…!
─!!!
─Kiaaaaaah!!!
The disturbance that started from a single point engulfed everything.
All the traces present here, along with mirror fragments, mana, magic, and Holy Power.
As everything converged to a single point, the replicated existences lurking in the artifacts of the Demon Race let out chilling cries.
Before long, the replicated “me” lost their existence and crumbled away.
[???]
[Hahahahaha]
[Wow]
[Great Lily]
[Wait, why are rankers…]
[Where did they all go?]
[Why did they recruit rankers, ah haha]
The chat room was in an uproar over my simple action.
But now that I think about it, it wasn’t entirely the users’ fault.
“The Holy Power is Extreme against the Demon Race. Those who watched the raid broadcasts probably know, but replicating Holy Power is nearly impossible.”
Holy Power and magic possess the power to erase each other.
The recently replicated versions of me only copied the figure known as “Lily Elbrite,” without replicating my Holy Power or special abilities.
I probably also couldn’t replicate the “Path of Light” I created.
“Since Holy Power and magic inherently repel each other, we can only remain extremely cautious.”
The result was the earlier situation.
[So, the conclusion is that it’s Great Lily?]
[Then does that mean we can’t defeat it without Holy Power?]
[Hmm]
[The Angel Guild should’ve come here]
[Did all the rankers die?]
“But it’s not that we can’t overcome the situation without Holy Power. Even at this moment, the rankers are likely fighting within the mirrors.”
I approached one of the thousands of mirrors and reached out.
Inside, vaguely visible due to the aftereffects of the technique, was a man wielding a white shield and a yellow-feathered sword. And another man wielding a black shield and a black-feathered sword was battling him.
“A Knight.”
As a ranker and the Alliance Leader, he used his technique, but the black knight blocked it and counterattacked.
It was an intense battle, making it impossible to tell who would win.
Fight.
It was absolutely not a situation where one side was being overwhelmed.
Even while still fighting, the reason for the body being sucked into the mirror.
‘…It wasn’t just one.’
The originally known demon race’s power “space.”
And this time a newly discovered “preservation.”
Currently, there are more than two demons in the underground.
■
“…The fight is dragging on.”
In a space within the mirror of preservation.
A man in a platinum-colored uniform looks down with an expressionless gaze.
Below, countless mirrored “spaces” exist, filled with outsiders and swords.
All are desperately trying to face their own clones.
Among them, the most noticeable are two individuals.
─Robelian…!
“Arne. Have you gotten stronger?”
Spirit Lord, Arne Partia.
Once called one of the Three Lords, she was unleashing fierce winds towards her clone, filled with anger—an uncharacteristic show of emotion.
By the way, since a “cloned Spirit King” also existed among the clones, the fight was far from ending.
And on the other side…
Ku-goong…! Ku-goong…!
Kwah-jijijijijik!!
─This won’t do!
“Leo.”
The disciple of the Spirit Lord, the Outsider, was displaying a much stronger presence than before as he pushed the clone hard.
But why is it called a clone?
─Tch. Another resurrection?
The clone, born from magic, possesses endless “regeneration.”
The stronger the regeneration ability of the cloned target, the more potent the effect becomes, and unless purified using holiness, their battle will endlessly drag on.
Splash.
“Robelian.”
A man dressed in black and red approached behind Duke Huangyeol Robelian, who was gazing down.
The only change on Robelian’s face was that the color of his hair and eyes turned black.
Without turning around, the Duke replied to his question.
“Wait.”
“I don’t know how long you expect me to wait. Now that you’ve brought in the Demon of Preservation through space, the disaster is a foregone conclusion.”
Snicker.
“Moreover, using the ‘her’ that was cloned as a weapon is a terribly arrogant idea. Do you think she’ll listen to your control? Doing so won’t realize your ‘purpose.’”
“Are you the one born from preservation to say that?”
“I am also Robelian.”
……
Duke Huangyeol glared at his cloned self.
However, unlike the normally cold Robelian, he was simply smiling.
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