Nullus emerged from the void, the cold air wrapping around him like a torn curtain, and then he slowly regained his balance. He wore a long black coat, its edges brushing against the gentle wind, with many pockets filled with things that were not easily visible. His black, tight-fitting pants allowed him freedom of movement, and his tousled hair gave him a disordered look, as if he had just stepped out of an uneven battle with the storm.
He looked to his side and saw Iggy standing on strange ground, its texture somewhere between hard grass and corroded iron. Iggy was slightly taller, his darker skin tone becoming more noticeable against the formal black suit he had chosen to wear. The buttons were tightly fastened, and the collar was neat, but it didn't hide the fact that he was ready to move at any moment, as if the clothes were designed to make him look calm yet prepared to strike.
Nullus raised an eyebrow slightly and said coldly,
— "Why did you choose this outfit?"
Iggy ran his hand over the sleeve of his jacket, then smiled faintly, as if recalling something he didn't want to share fully.
— "I liked it... it reminds me of something."
Nullus didn't press him further but slowly moved his eyes toward Iggy's sword hanging by his side. The tip of the hilt gleamed with a faint reflection under the strange light of this place.
— "Did you choose to buy a sword because it reminds you of something too?"
Iggy smiled a small smile, one that carried a little sarcasm, a little honesty, and a lot of caution.
— "No... it's just that having something at this angle near me makes me feel comfortable." He placed his hand gently on the hilt as if reassuring himself of its presence. "And at the same time, I can use it in combat in the best way." He then looked at Nullus with a sidelong glance and added with a semi-sarcastic tone: "It's better than the dozens of knives in your pockets."
There was no change in Nullus's expression, but his voice came cold as usual:
— "In those months, I didn't waste time." He raised his hand and grabbed one of the knives in his coat pocket, pulled it out, and threw it into the air, catching it smoothly. "I read all the martial arts books I got, and trained on them."
Iggy's eyebrow furrowed slightly, but he listened in silence as Nullus continued:
— "I enhance my chances in close combat this way, as for ranged combat..." He twirled the knife between his fingers, then suddenly threw it toward a distant stone. Before it hit, it seemed as if the air around it trembled, and the knife's speed increased unnaturally, piercing the stone and falling on the other side. "... I can amplify the speed, weight, or sharpness of the knives."
Iggy paused for a moment, then exhaled slowly, surprised by the depth of Nullus's thinking.
— "You're thinking of everything precisely... more than I expected."
Nullus shrugged indifferently. But before he could respond, Iggy froze, his eyes slowly scanning their surroundings. Something was off.
Nullus noticed this immediately and raised his head... and saw the nature of the field for the first time.
Everything around them was unstable, like a reflection on the surface of disturbed water. Broken skyscrapers intertwined with massive tree trunks, old electrical lights pulsed alongside glowing fungi. It wasn't just a scene of destruction—it was something more. It seemed like intertwined possibilities, worlds that never existed but stood here now, forming a shattered reality.
And in the air, shards of blue glass flew by... carrying with them whispering voices, as though they were memories from worlds that had never been written.
Nullus and Iggy continued walking through the strange city, where the primitive forest merged with the ruins of skyscrapers. The trees seemed to have reclaimed the city by force, their massive trunks curling around buildings, while their branches stretched through shattered windows. Everywhere, abandoned cars lined up, some not just covered in rust but merged with the glowing fungi that pulsed with a cold glow.
The air itself was strange. Blue glass shards, like broken mirrors, flashed for a moment before disappearing, each carrying with it the echo of a distant sound, whispers in an incomprehensible language.
— "It feels like we're walking in the memory of a city, but it's not cohesive." Iggy muttered as he observed how the things merged together in a way that didn't follow any familiar logic.
— "Maybe this isn't one city." Nullus said slowly, looking at the overlapping buildings. "Maybe it's the remnants of different cities, possibilities that never happened, but they gathered here."
As they advanced, Nullus stopped in front of a glass window still connected to a half-collapsed wall. The surface was filled with cracks, but it still reflected his image... or rather, a different version of him.
First Law: The Distorted Reflection Law
Nullus stood frozen. The man in the mirror wasn't him—not exactly. He resembled him, but his appearance was more refined, his eyes sharp with intelligence, and instead of his usual clothes, he wore a white lab coat, with his fingers stained with ink, not blood.
— "I..." Nullus muttered, staring into the eyes of his reflection.
— "Don't stare!" Iggy shouted suddenly, but it was too late.
Nullus's gaze lasted beyond three seconds. The reflection was no longer just a mirage within the glass—it stepped out.
The world became silent for a moment, as if everything had stopped moving. Then, slowly, the other version of Nullus stepped out of the glass, his feet pressing against the ground as if he had always been part of reality.
At the same moment, Iggy heard a familiar voice coming from the reflective surface of a car beside him. He turned to see himself... but not as he knew himself.
In the mirror, he wasn't the Tyndalos Hound, but a musician. He wore a sleek black jacket, carrying a violin instead of a weapon, and instead of the usual sharpness in his eyes, there was calm and contemplation.
— "Damn..." Iggy tried to look away, but his eyes lingered on the reflection for a fraction of a second longer than they should have.
The other Iggy stepped out from the reflective surface of the car, landing on his feet calmly, carrying his violin as if nothing unusual was happening.
— "This is bad." Iggy muttered, taking a step back.
Second Law: The Probability Exchange Principle
Nullus moved to place his hand on his sword, but he felt a cold shiver pass through his body. The moment he tried to grasp the hilt, he found nothing. The weapon was gone.
Instead, he held an old notebook, filled with notes and scientific research he didn't remember writing. His fingers flipped through the pages involuntarily, as if his mind knew the information contained within it, even though he had never seen it before.
— "I've lost my sword..." he said in a low voice.
Iggy looked at himself, then checked the side where he kept his weapon. There was nothing. But in his hands, he found a wooden violin instead, as if he had always been carrying it.
— "This place steals from us... and gives us other things." Iggy said, narrowing his eyes.
— "A trade-off..." Nullus muttered, feeling a chill in his chest. "Everything we pick up here comes at a cost."
In the distance, they saw shadows moving among the ruins, some moving slowly, others with strange grace. They weren't monsters, but humans... or at least, they had been at some point.
— "It seems we're not the only ones here."
But the real question wasn't: who were they?
It was: how many of them were reflections that had stepped out of mirrors? And how many of them were real?