Ashfall Peak
Elric and Auren leaned on their swords, breathless and aching, believing for a moment that Jeil's death had cleared their path.
"I think that was the worst of it," Auren said, wiping blood from his brow.
The mountain answered with a low, guttural rustling.
Elric froze. "You just had to say it."
From the cliffs, trees, and cracks in the earth, they came.
Hundreds—no, thousands—of hunched, simian-like creatures with glowing red eyes and jagged claws, their teeth filed to points, their long limbs twitching with unnatural rhythm.
They surrounded the two warriors in a tightening ring of snarls and twitching shadows.
Auren raised his sword. "You've got to be kidding me."
"Mountain guardians," Elric muttered. "But they're not natural. They're bound."
As if summoned by something deeper. Something watching.
The monkeys moved in closer.
One hissed in a voice like cracked bone:
"You climb too far. Your soul is not clean."
Another added,
"Blood calls blood. Mirror calls darkness."
Elric and Auren pressed back-to-back, surrounded on all sides.
"If we die here," Auren muttered, "I want you to know I always thought your dramatic speeches were unnecessary."
"I'll make this one short then," Elric whispered. "Don't. Die."
Elira's Side — The Mirror Realm
Elira's breathing was uneven. Her hands trembled, knuckles bloodless as she slammed the kitchen knife again and again against the sealed window.
Clink. Clink. Clink.
No cracks. No marks.
"This isn't real!" she screamed. "LET ME OUT!"
She rushed to the drawers again, found the old hammer from her emergency toolkit, and stormed to the mirror — the one that started it all, still standing silently in the corner.
"You're not a door. You're a prison."
With every muscle shaking, she hurled the hammer.
CRASH!
Glass exploded — but not like normal glass.
From the shattered frame poured black fire. It burst from the cracks like a living thing — flames that didn't burn light but seemed to devour it.
Elira stumbled back, horrified, as the air turned cold and the shadows in her room twitched unnaturally.
And then she heard it.
A voice from within the fire.
Not loud — but whispered.
"Found you…"
Elira backed into the wall, eyes wide.
"Who… who said that?"
From the shattered mirror, the darkness twisted.
And from within it…
A figure began to step through.
Tall.
Cloaked in shadow.
Eyes like burning coals.