The grand staircase had vanished.
Ren Zian stood at the edge of a glimmering void. Where once the Staircase of Greed had towered, only a bleeding red mist remained. The marble beneath his boots had turned translucent, pulsing faintly like flesh trying to breathe.
Behind him, Lyra's hand found his.
"This place," she whispered, eyes narrowing, "doesn't follow any god's logic."
From the mist, a new structure began to form. Not stone. Not magic. A mirror. No, hundreds of them—slivers of curved glass floating in a spiral, reflecting fragments of faces, eyes, and scenes long past. One moment showed Ren as a child, weeping. Another flashed Lyra asleep beside him, vulnerable and content. And then, a face neither had seen before.
A woman.
Hair black as ink under water. Eyes silver like frozen starlight. Her reflection didn't move with the others. It stared straight at Ren.
"That mirror is watching you," Lyra said, her grip tightening. "Who is she?"
"I don't know," Ren replied—but the reflection blinked.
The spiral of mirrors split apart and formed a path. At the center floated a grand, ancient slab: a rectangular pool of crimson, glimmering like polished blood. The Blood Mirror.
Before Ren could move, the voice returned—calm, male, sly.
"You've stepped into the Realm of Reflection. Here, your secrets will rise. And some… may try to kill you."
A figure stepped from one of the larger mirrors. Clad in black robes etched with shimmering silver veins, he looked nothing like the previous villains Ren had faced. This one was not monstrous. He was familiar.
Lyra tensed. "Ren… he has your face."
Indeed, he did.
The man smiled cruelly. "Name's Vaeren Zian. The version of you that accepted power without love. The one who took every goddess by force, broke every oath, and bent fate without a single care."
Ren narrowed his eyes. "A failed reflection."
"A potential you," Vaeren countered. "Born from your jealousy, your rage, your temptation to betray those you love for more. You buried me. But this mirror? It remembers."
The blood pool between them rippled.
And from its center, a woman rose.
Lyra's eyes widened. "No… it can't be."
The silver-eyed girl from the mirror. Now real. She emerged nude but untouched by shame, the blood forming a delicate veil around her body as she stepped forward, eyes locked on Ren.
"I am Seris, the Echo of Betrayals," she said. "Every time you hesitated to trust Lyra. Every time you stared too long at another. Every time you wondered what it would feel like… to choose someone else."
Lyra stepped forward, fire sparking around her. "You don't belong to him."
"But I do," Seris whispered. "Not as a partner. Not as a lover. But as a possibility he dared not speak aloud."
Ren clenched his fists. "This is an illusion. A test."
"No," Vaeren said calmly, "this is your soul's rot made flesh."
The mirrors around them shuddered as dozens of distorted versions of Ren emerged—some kind, others twisted beyond reason. Each carried regrets. Failures. And yet, only Vaeren and Seris were solid. Real.
Lyra moved in front of Ren. "I've been with him since beginning of choas syste. I know what's in his heart."
Seris tilted her head. "Then why did he dream of me during the Flame Trial?"
Ren froze.
He had seen her. A fleeting image in the fire. He thought it was nothing. But the Blood Mirror had remembered.
Lyra turned to him slowly. "Ren. Is that true?"
He hesitated. Just a second. But it was enough.
Vaeren struck.
A pulse of black lightning surged across the platform. Ren raised a shield, blocking the main blow, but Seris flicked her wrist—and Lyra's flame was doused in shadow.
"This realm is powered by truth," she said, stepping closer to Ren. "And the truth is, a part of you wanted to know what I was."
"I didn't choose you," Ren said, voice low.
"Not yet," she replied.
Vaeren lunged again, this time with mirrored daggers that warped mid-strike. Ren parried, countered, then threw him across the platform with a blast of Chaos-infused force. But Seris moved like water, circling behind Lyra and whispering:
"He will fail you eventually. He's not a god. He's a man. And men like him… they always look twice."
Lyra roared in fury, and her fire reignited, white-hot and trembling with heartbreak.
Ren turned, hand outstretched. "Lyra, listen—she's not real. She's the echo of a thought. I chose you. Always."
But Lyra's eyes weren't angry. They were hurt.
"I believe you," she whispered. "But I hate that I have to."
She turned her flames on Seris, and Ren joined her. Together, their powers intertwined—flame and chaos—burning through the mirror-born illusions. Seris screamed as the fire touched her, but her eyes remained locked on Ren.
"You'll see me again," she whispered as she crumbled.
Vaeren, weakened, tried to escape into one of the mirrors—but Ren hurled a spear of Chaos straight into the glass. It shattered, and with it, Vaeren howled, disintegrating into dust.
The Blood Mirror cracked.
The realm shifted.
Lyra collapsed to her knees. "Ren… that woman… she wasn't fake. She was made from you."
"I know," he said quietly, kneeling beside her. "But knowing something dark lives inside me doesn't mean I'll feed it. You're my anchor. You've always been."
She didn't answer right away.
Then, slowly, she leaned into his chest.
"I'll stay," she whispered. "But promise me you won't lock your thoughts away from me again."
He nodded.
From the broken Blood Mirror, a single shard floated toward them. A new Chaos Skill burned into Ren's soul:
Mirror Veil: Truths Unseen – Grants the ability to pierce illusions, lies, and even emotional deceptions—of others and of himself.
As the mirror realm faded, a door of obsidian opened.
Another area awaited.
But this time, Lyra walked beside him in silence—hand in hand, heart still wounded… but unbroken.
And deep within the void, Seris smiled.
She was not done.