9. Being One of 'Them'.

As Mordret bent to pick up the Shard, suddenly, his surroundings lit up, and his instincts sensed danger. He frantically looked around, but when he did, he was awestruck.

Colorful runes danced around him, bright yet dim, as if they were breathing. Everything felt weird, and Zephyr couldn't understand what was happening. Involuntary actions like breathing and thinking also felt heavy.

'What is this pressure?' Mordret felt dizzy as his vision became laden, and his heart started beating faster and faster. He tried to catch his breath and return to his bed, but before he could, his eyes landed on the awkward pillar in the corner of the room.

Time seemed to stop for Mordret as the opaque mirror suddenly reflected his image, and the mimic on the other side replicated his actions. However, when Mordret's hand touched the Shard, the mimic smiled, leaving Zephyr to swear in astonishment, "What the FUCK!"

The Soul Shard transformed into bright particles of light and entered the pillar, and Mordret's eyes widened even more when he noticed that the pillar only reflected his image and not a single object in his room. This was not how a mirror should work!

'But that's a pillar!' Zephyr wanted to run, but something was pulling him closer to the pillar. The motionless mimic on the other side only increased his suspicions.

Mordret locked eyes with the mimic and walked closer, mirroring its movements. It was hard to make sense of what was happening. As they continued walking toward each other, he heard a cracking sound, and before he knew it, he lost his mind and cursed out, "Where the hell am I?!"

In an instant, he found himself facing his mimic, while inside a spacious room of a mansion - the Peta Estate. This time, however, the mimic did not follow his actions.

Mordret, standing on the other side of the reflection, stared at his mimic and ran across the white room with a horrified expression on his face, as if he had seen a ghost. Zephyr, playing the role of Mordret, shouted, his voice unhinged with fear, "My mimic!!!! It switched places with me!!! Am I trapped inside this room now?!"

His terror escalated further as he examined the room and realized there was no end to it. It was completely white, with only a window showing Mordret in his own room.

Zephyr was now trapped in this world without an exit, and he felt the fear intensify. He looked at the mimic, standing calmly and unresponsive.

"What do you want?" Zephyr asked, trying to sound serious and authoritative, being in Mordret's character, but he couldn't shake off the fear. The mimic, however, remained silent, staring at him and blinking occasionally.

Taking a minute to calm down, Zephyr sensed that the mimic looked more like a non-living being than a sentient one. He attempted to speak to it, but fear held him back.

After trying different approaches, Zephyr finally decided to cross back again, and this time, the mimic followed his movements. Once again, he heard the sound of cracking, and in an instant, he was back in his room.

"Now… can you answer now?" Zephyr asked warily. Only his body reflection was visible on the pillar, and the mimic, which took his place, replicated all his movements, remaining silent and enigmatic.

But no matter what, the mimic never spoke. Though it followed Mordret's lip moment, no voice came from it.

"Just… what are you?" Zephyr was very confused. There were so many things about the mimic that he wanted to try, but he was still skeptical about it.

Then, as if to soothe his worries, the runes of the system appeared in front of him.

…

Active Skill: [Mirrorweave]

The Cursed Child, harboring a profound loathing for its own reflection, defied the laws of reality. Blurring the line between truth and illusion, the cursed one possessed the extraordinary power to shatter the very essence of reflections.

Description: Manipulate reflections to create illusions and deceive enemies. Hide in the warm embrace of nothingness.

…

Attribute: [One of the Mimics]

"Can you tell the difference? No... Because you are not worthy enough," Berserk sneered.

"I cannot differentiate... because we are the same," calmly replied its counterpart. "The fabric of reality is just a piece of cloth for me. I can tear it off any time."

Description: Become the mimic. Blend with reflective surfaces for stealth and surprise attacks.

…

"The hell?!" Zephyr's jaw hit the floor. Just how cool were Mordret's powers?!

But things did not stop there.

Another set of runes appeared in front of him.

[Activate the Obelisk of Mirage?]

<Yes > <No >

Zephyr stared at the runes for a while. It was hard to decide. 'No, no, no! Not right now! I am already too spent!' He was not buying it. The strength to explore something new… again pissed him.

"But I want to kind of… see." The curious cat inside him was fighting against his sober mind. There were no breaks in his life at all, but it was still extremely exciting to discover something with a name as badass as that pillar.

"Obelisk of Mirage… What can it be?" His mind wandered for a minute before he sighed.

"Yes," The curious cat won the battle.

He was definitely interested to know what that function activated.

A moment or so passed before he once again changed places with the mimic inside, however, this time, the white room was not empty.

Just like the window that connected him to his room, there were multiple windows around him.

Zephyr was left speechless.

'W-what the hell?!' Words stuck into his throat. How can he not be like that?

After all, "This pillar has a fucking scouting mechanism!" Zephyr said out loud. Unknown whether his voice went outside of the white room or not.

Small windows similar to the one that connected to his room were spread all across the sea of whiteness.

Looking at the closest window, Mordret walked near to it.

A step, then another, and another. Zephyr's eyes widened as he realized something.

The more he walked inside this white room after activating the Obelisk, the more he felt… tired.

"M-my essence! It's sucking on my essence!" Though the quantity sucked was a little, Zephyr could still feel the rate at which it was sucked.

"But this is the first time I can feel the essence in my body extracted at such a high rate." In the past few days or so, Zephyr had done his research regarding mundane things like Beast Raid, Rankings, Noble Hierarchy system, and things related to Warriors and Beasts. So he was aware of terms related to warriors, like essence, soul shards, abilities, and attributes.

He had planned to work on them tomorrow.

"I just want to… walk near that window." The moment his feet closed the distance, he found himself standing in front of a window of an odd interior of the house.

In front of him was a small room or kitchen or bedroom or whatever it was. There was nothing special about the house, and compared to his room, it wasn't either spacious or luxurious… However, it resembled that of old European houses of the middle class– or poor people.

"Yeah… Homelessness wasn't a problem at that time. After all, living anywhere was like living in a house." Zephyr nodded.

Now that he stood in front of a window, Zephyr felt the rate of essence expenditure decreases slightly. Or rather it stabilized.

Just as Zephyr was about to get closer to the window, he stopped abruptly.

"Mom!" A girl's voice resounded in the white room.

With wet shoulder-length raven hair wrapped in a thin white fabric, the owner of the voice entered the room, or the kitchen, or whatever it was.

"How much time do you need to bathe? Who will go to the fields now? Jon left because you were so lazy!" A motherly voice replied to the girl with a slap on her arm, as she was about to steal a cookie placed on the granite surface nearby.

"Whoa! Cookies?! Did Brother win the gamble or what? How come we have sugar for this– and whoa! Cocoa?!" The girl looked in her late teens. Her voice, even though charming, was quite sarcastic while speaking to her mother.

'Haah. Children these days.' Zephyr, who was watching this closely, mumbled.

"The Lord has awakened. That's why I am baking cookies." The mother answered her grumbling girl.

***

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