Reality folded.
The mirror dimension expanded outward from a single point, geometric patterns replicating and reflecting across space until they encompassed the entire devastated area. The transition was instantaneous, smooth, a surgical separation of one reality from another.
The bubbling lava lakes remained visible below, their angry orange glow creating light that bounced between crystalline surfaces. Blue flames still flickered across what remained of the slum, their chemical persistence undiminished by the dimensional shift. But now they existed behind a barrier, quarantined from the physical world, trapped within this pocket universe where the normal rules could be temporarily suspended.
A figure walked through the fractured reflections, her robes flowing despite the absence of wind. She was tall, slender, her movements carrying the precise grace of someone completely comfortable in their own skin. A delicate white folding fan occupied one hand, held loosely, almost carelessly.
Her bald head caught the reflected firelight, skin gleaming with a faint sheen. She made no attempt to conceal her appearance, her identity clear to anyone with the knowledge to recognize it.
The Ancient One approached the Mediterranean corpse with unhurried steps, each footfall making no sound against the mirror dimension's strange geometry.
The corpse's mouth twisted, lips pulling back from teeth in an expression of pure hatred. When words emerged, they carried a voice that didn't match the ruined body, something deeper and more resonant speaking through dead vocal cords.
"Damn you Ancient One!"
The curse echoed through the mirror space, bouncing between reflective surfaces, each repetition slightly distorted until the words became layered harmonics that hurt to hear.
"Thousands of years you've existed, and still you persist! I've been waiting so patiently to entertain you in hell! I'll build you a magnificent amusement park, make you kneel before my throne, force you to submit!"
The corpse's dead eyes, pale and milky with decomposition, fixed on the Ancient One with intensity that suggested the entity behind them could see far more than simple physical sight allowed. Mephisto, King of Hell, stared out through stolen flesh with undisguised malice.
The Ancient One stopped approximately five meters distant, close enough for conversation, far enough to maintain tactical advantage. Her expression remained perfectly calm, serene even, giving no indication that the threats had any effect whatsoever.
She raised the white folding fan, waving it gently in a motion that suggested cooling herself despite the dimension's lack of actual temperature. Her dark eyes, bright and deep as starlight, focused on the possessed corpse with clinical precision. A flicker of disgust crossed her features, gone almost too quickly to register.
"Mephisto." Her voice emerged measured, controlled. "How is it that demons resemble maggots so perfectly? Impossible to drive away, inspiring visceral revulsion simply by existing."
The corpse's face contorted into something that might have been a smile on living flesh. On dead tissue, it looked like rigor mortis arranged into mockery.
"Ha! Thank you for the compliment! This is our nature as demons!" Mephisto's voice carried genuine amusement through the corpse's throat. "Our desire for pure human souls is equally innate, equally fundamental to our being."
The dead eyes tracked across the Ancient One's form with predatory assessment. "Are you thinking of stopping me now, Ancient One? Isn't it rather late for that?"
Mephisto's voice took on a note of triumph. "Every soul here carries my brand! They're my personal property! No one can take them from me!"
The corpse's remaining hand rose, one finger extending to point accusingly. "Besides, aren't you afraid your actions will destroy the ancient covenant between us? You don't want to restart the endless war between the mortal world and hell, do you?"
A pause, letting that threat settle, then continuing with false concern. "After all, you no longer have the Hidden Army to assist you. Their bloodline has been lost to time. What do you have? Your disciples who've proven themselves largely incompetent? The world's various governments that can barely maintain internal cohesion?"
The dead face arranged itself into an expression of exaggerated thoughtfulness. "I have a suggestion, dear Supreme Sorcerer. If you simply stand aside this time, refrain from interfering, I can help humanity several times in the future. If you don't trust a demon's word, I'll even sign a new contract with you. Binding terms. Verified conditions. Whatever you need to feel secure in the arrangement."
Vicious light flowed through those pale dead eyes, serpentine and patient. The temptation dripped from every word, each phrase crafted to exploit doubt or hesitation.
The Ancient One's slender hand made a small gesture. The white folding fan vanished from existence between one moment and the next, disappearing into whatever pocket dimension she used for storage. She adjusted the sleeves of her white robe with deliberate care, the motion creating soft whispers of fabric.
Her dark eyes remained fixed on Mephisto, bright and deep and utterly without ripples. When she spoke, her voice carried the weight of confession mixed with resolve.
"Signing the ancient covenant with the forces of hell, particularly with you Mephisto, is the single thing I regret most in my very long existence." The words emerged without anger, simply stating fact. "That agreement has given you the opportunity to study contract loopholes, to find ways to circumvent the spirit of the law while maintaining technical compliance."
Her expression didn't change, but something in her posture suggested long-held frustration. "You can manifest in the mortal world using nothing more than a corpse, not even a true incarnation or proper descent. Just dead flesh worn like a puppet. And as Supreme Sorcerer, bound by the covenant's terms, I must consider the ancient agreement's restrictions before acting. Even expelling you back to hell requires careful consideration of potential violations."
She paused, letting that sink in. "This was never the purpose of the contract."
"Hahaha!" Mephisto's laughter erupted from the corpse's mouth, genuine and delighted. "All your troubles are self-inflicted! Tsk tsk tsk, the Ancient One is truly delicious to behold, you..."
The dead eyes scanned her body with deliberate, offensive slowness. The gaze carried implications, suggestions, violations committed through simple observation. A vicious smile spread across the pale dead face, transforming it into something obscene.
The Ancient One's expression shifted fractionally. Not anger. Not disgust. Something closer to satisfaction.
She smiled, the expression small but genuine.
"Mephisto," she said, interrupting his unfinished blasphemy before it could fully form. "Since you learned to study the covenant's loopholes, naturally I did the same."
Her smile widened slightly. "I recently met a new friend. Someone who possesses an almost paranoid malice toward all evil entities that aren't human."
The vicious smile vanished from the corpse's face.
Mephisto had no time to react, no chance to mount a defense or attempt escape.
Something materialized behind the possessed corpse with zero warning. A massive power claw, each talon gleaming despite wisps of black mist that clung to the surface like condensed shadow. The weapon moved with speed that defied its size.
The claw punched through the corpse's back, talons easily severing the spine, continuing through to pierce the bloodless, corrupted abdomen. The movement was precise, surgical, designed to cause maximum disruption to whatever anchored Mephisto's consciousness to the flesh.
The claw closed, gripping, and lifted the corpse into the air like a child's toy.
"Ah! Ancient One! You—!"
The scream that tore from the corpse's throat carried shock and genuine anger, an entity unaccustomed to being physically overpowered finding itself helpless.
Golden flames erupted from within the power claw.
Not the blue fire consuming the slum. Not natural flames at all. This was something else, something that burned with spiritual intensity rather than simple heat. The fire spread across the corpse's form in an instant, consuming dead flesh with hungry efficiency.
Within a single heartbeat, the Mediterranean corpse was reduced to scattered ash. Gray particles drifted downward through the mirror dimension's strange gravity, scattering across crystalline surfaces.
Mephisto's presence vanished, forcibly ejected back to his own realm, the anchor destroyed beyond any possibility of maintaining the connection.
The ashes completed their fall, settling into small piles against the dimension's geometric floor.
And behind where the corpse had been, a figure became visible.
She wore golden power armor, the design ancient and magnificent, every plate suggesting craftsmanship from an era long past. The armor gleamed despite its illusory nature, solid enough to seem real but possessing a translucent quality that marked it as something not quite present in standard reality.
Behind her, thirteen shadowy forms hovered. Human souls, their outlines barely visible, features indistinct but postures suggesting military bearing. They waited in formation, patient and quiet.
The Ancient One stepped forward, her smile still present but softer now, touched by something that might have been approval or simple satisfaction at a plan executed successfully.
"This lesson for Mephisto should last at least until my death." Her tone carried dry amusement. "He won't risk that kind of direct intervention again for quite some time."
She studied the tall illusory figure before her, then shifted her attention to the thirteen souls arranged behind the golden armor. Her expression became more serious, contemplative.
"Are you certain you don't require my assistance?" The question emerged gently, offering rather than insisting. "A simple forgetting spell would erase the person you're protecting from the world. His words would vanish from everyone's minds. He's still too young, too inexperienced. He doesn't understand this world's true nature yet."
The Ancient One's gaze remained steady. "Only through flames of war and sacrifice can humanity's future be properly secured."
The golden figure shifted slightly, the movement accompanied by whispers of ancient machinery. When she spoke, her voice emerged corrupted, distorted, syllables breaking apart mid-word as if transmitted through failing equipment.
"Furthermore, the content zzzzt transaction between us zzzzt does not include zzzzt interference."
A pause, static filling the space where words should have been. Then: "Conflict can only zzzzt humanity by zzzzt consuming itself."
Each corrupted word seemed to draw something from the thirteen souls behind her. Their already dim forms darkened further, fading by degrees as if their very essence was being consumed to power her speech.
When the final syllable fell into silence, the thirteen souls had become barely visible, little more than suggestions of human shape.
They moved as one. Thirteen figures raised their hands in perfect synchronization, bringing them to what would have been their brows in military salute. The gesture carried weight, final acknowledgment from soldiers to their commander.
Then they dissipated.
Not violently. Simply fading, dissolving into the mirror dimension's strange atmosphere like smoke in wind. Within seconds, nothing remained of the thirteen Gang Dogs who'd given their lives in the slum.
The Ancient One watched them go, her expression shifting to something that might have been regret or simply acknowledgment of necessary sacrifice. A soft sound emerged from her throat, not quite a sigh, carrying the weight of centuries spent making similar choices.
"Tsk." The sound was sharp, definitive. "Ruthless. But in protecting humanity, this cold-bloodedness becomes a responsibility we must shoulder."
The white folding fan reappeared in her slender palm, materialized from nothing. She raised it, waving the delicate instrument with gentle, precise motions.
The mirror dimension responded.
Reality folded back further, revealing what had been hidden beneath the initial layer. The space expanded impossibly, geometric surfaces multiplying exponentially, and within the crystalline reflections...
Souls.
Hundreds of them. Thousands. Human souls packed into the mirror dimension so densely they seemed to create their own luminescence, a ghostly glow that filled every available space. Each one represented someone who'd died in the slum, trapped between worlds, unable to pass on naturally due to the supernatural contamination of their deaths.
They floated in place, suspended in whatever served as gravity within this pocket universe, waiting without understanding what they were waiting for.
The Ancient One's smile returned, but now it carried determination rather than satisfaction. She turned toward the golden armored figure, one hand gesturing to encompass the vast crowd of souls surrounding them.
"Come on, new friend." Her voice carried both weariness and resolve. "We're going to be very busy."
The golden figure inclined her head slightly, acknowledgment without words. The power claw remained visible, wisps of black mist still clinging to its surface, ready for whatever work lay ahead.
Together, they turned toward the sea of trapped souls, two beings of tremendous power preparing to wage a different kind of war. Not against demons or heretics, but against death itself, fighting to salvage what could be saved from humanity's latest tragedy.
The mirror dimension hummed with potential energy, reality waiting to be shaped by will and ancient knowledge.
The real work was about to begin.
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