Chapter 40 – Within the Shattered Mirror
One more teenager.
His name was Rave. He was the one who spread the video. He was the one who edited laughter into the victim's screams. He was the one who created drama on social media with the caption: He's weak. We were just playing.
That night, in his bedroom, the glow of his phone screen burned bright. Comments flowed endlessly. Some defended him. Others cursed him. But what came was not the crowd of netizens.
A shadow crept along the wall. It looked human, yet one of its arms was the leg of an insect. Its tongue split into three, and the breath it exhaled carried the stench of spiritual blood. This was not merely an astral being. This was a shard of the mirror—fractures of a dimension broken by laughter that had gone too far.
Rave screamed, but no sound came out. The creature approached slowly, whispering the victim's recorded laughter into his ears, followed by the scream of death.
Enver arrived too late.
The creature had already clung to Rave's chest, planting the shadow of memory into his spiritual organs. Direct purificazione could not be performed.
Enver stepped into the dimension of Rave's mind. That world resembled a school painted in blood-red, its walls covered with scrawled insults. Corpses of bullied victims danced, laughing back at Rave.
He stood among them, silent.
Enver raised Card IX – Occhio del Giudizio.
An eye spun in the air, gazing at every unacknowledged sin.
The creature emerged from within the blackboard, tearing space and time apart. Its body stretched like a serpent, but its heads were those of children.
This battle was not fought in the physical world. But in the battlefield of the soul. And that was far more dangerous.
Enver was hurled back by a blast of rejection energy. He rose again. His right eye glowed blue. The faint voice of Zephyr echoed in his ear:
Do not let this world win.
He summoned three cards at once.
Card II – Manus Misericordiae, the hand of mercy touching the souls of the dead.
Card VI – Anello del Silenzio, silencing all false laughter.
Card XIV – Ascensione, lifting fragments of trapped souls.
The creature writhed, screaming in a thousand tongues. But Enver did not stop. He raised his hand, embedding the symbol of purificazione into Rave's chest with a long, piercing cry.
The soul dimension began to collapse. The blood-soaked school crumbled. The laughter faded into sobs.
Rave wept. Not out of fear. But because for the first time… he saw himself as a broken mirror.
Enver stood at the doorway.
"You will not be judged by me. But by yourself."
And behind his body, Card XVII formed—never before seen. A card without a name. A card born of loss that could never be redeemed.
He walked away.
And that night, the world grew a little quieter.
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