He laid inside a puddle of the endless mirror, sunken into it by a few inches, Cades having forgotten him for a moment, almost having him be swallowed by the endless expanse, almost having himself become one of the countless secrets and hidden thoughts Cades had birthed throughout his life, but then, he awoke from when he was everything, and he moved quickly, knowing Cades was here, knowing he was still in danger, but quickly realizing, after having stood up completely, taking a pose and trying to take out a sword he now realized to be completely gone, as if it had never even been there, perhaps another show of Cades current power, the fact that he didn't have to recreate his body exactly, and was certainly able to make countless changes.
But there was nothing but the endless expanse, the mirror now showing streams he had never seen before, just as the polar lights one saw in the coldest places on ehetria, simply in another colour, silver and violet entangled in an endless dance, then, it dropped, turning into countless shard and ascending through the mirrored surface, as if using it as a portal into another world, quickly turning into nothing but the light he had seen before, now, for a moment filling everything, before becoming nothing once more, just as he had been before, an experience he never wanted to experience again, an experience that truly, even now, made him shudder.
Then, the light vanishing into nothing, the polar streams of energy turning into darkness, only the horizons still glowing in an eternal white light, Cades stood in front of him, the form made out of a mirror at first, quickly turning into an endlessly big chained angel, turning into a stream of pure energy, turning into the world itself, be it a miniature version of it all, another layer that almost cut off his head, then, becoming a corpse, rotten and old.
It was disgusting, truly, the teeth of the corpse looked almsot as if they were about to fall ot at any moment, it no longer had any eyes, nro did it have ears, those having rotted off long ago, most likely being eaten by maggots and used as food for larvae, the bones, few showing, reddish and unwashed, thus not white as many people imagined them, the hair gone, only faint strands remaining, as if clinging on to show that Cades was not dead, but instead very much alive, the rest of the body looking comparably, but covered in elegant clothes.
The clothes had ornaments at the shoulder, as if to pollster them up, btu Lich thought that it was probably just for show, because the rest of it looked like a parting cloak meant for official duties and battle, almost as if Cades had now begun to take him serious in a battle, especially with the blade on his side, the black belt decorating his stomach and giving him quite the peculiar and interesting look, if not for the fact that he was still a, practically toothless corpse, his shoes being elegant and cleanly made of leather, the pants being blackish white, as if switching from time to time, almost not having decided what they wished to be yet, but elegant and cleanly made, as if freshly made, which they had been.
Finally, as if to sprinkle eerie perfection upon the corpse standing in front of Cades, there were now flaming, almost crystalline, eyes within the place where they should've normally been, too small for it, floating in the nothingness, turning multiple times before halting on him.
Cades opened his maw, revealing a hole within it that led to the freedom for all he tried to eat, and, without moving it, a sound came out, long and monotone, but Lich knew what was being said, it wasn't too different from the way Cades tended to communicate in this place all along after all, through conveying his intentions of what he intended to say, not through true words, the only problem being the endlessly resounding tone that resembled a kind of distressed, painful, sigh, crowing as if they hadn't drunk in over fifty years.
"That wasn't too bad, was it, Lich?"
"W-why do you look like.. that...?"
"It seems like you should relearn your manners when talking to another person, after all I did pose my question first, but either way, I chose this appearance because this is you, this is your body."
"..."
"It told you before, Lich, you are only a corpse now, especially since you've been undergoing the challenge of that great pillar of motion for a much longer time than you might believe.."
"Wha-"
"Since I already know that you'll ask, and I'd like to get revenge for you not taking part in the upholding of basic manners, though I don't quite understand why I am so obsessed with them right now, I'll just tell you how long you've been in here already..."
"....."
"You've been taking the trials for over fifty years."
Lich felt as if the world was breaking down all around him, during the conversation he had felt as if he was simply talking, not even truly thinking, as he always felt when talking to Cades, to the subconsciousness that is, perhaps a result from having been the very same person for such a long time, still, it was too much to bear when he found out how he looked right now, when he found out that he had been here for over fifty years.
How was it even possible, and why was he not more devastated than he was right now...
Perhaps it was simply the fact that there had never been anything left out there for him anyways, after all, the endless chained islands wouldn't just turn into something else, even after a few decades had passed, ehetria would not repopulate itself with ehetrians, his parents wouldn't come to live, his sister still had similar odds of being alive, those being zero, or almost zero, all in all, it was true, practically nothing had really changed for him, it was really just simple information, the same going for the corpse.
There was just nothing he could do, so, while he stood still, his face unmoving, his heart stopping for a few beats, or perhaps for as long as he was in this place even, he didn't really care all that much.