The voice of the Mirror Demon was the same.
Choppy phrases, a strange, warped tone, and…
the Leithan language.
Now Lein understood what language the Demon had been speaking.
The reason he hadn't realized it right away was because
the Mirror Demon wasn't speaking the regular Leithan tongue
but a twisted version of it…
Leithan spoken backwards,
yet still carrying the same meaning.
«Couldn't be worse…» Lein thought to himself.
Alone in a room with the Mirror Demon, Lein didn't even dare hope to survive.
But how strange…
that the demon hadn't killed him immediately.
"Yes, here we meet again…" Lein said with his eyes closed.
«Better keep them shut, just in case…»
"Lein… Edgar… How did you… do this?"
Hearing the question, Lein smiled and replied in a calm tone:
"Not my doing. You've probably already guessed whose work this is."
Though Lein couldn't see his double's face, he could feel the anger radiating from him.
"Don't… mess with… my head. Who… is he?"
Lein's smile widened.
«I don't know,» he thought.
"I know him very well—just like you do."
Lein paused, then went on:
"A deity who can create an illusory world indistinguishable from reality. One who can seal your power with a single thought."
Lein thought:
«If I keep showing fear and don't open my eyes, I won't buy any time.»
So he opened them.
In his black pupils, he saw his own distorted face reflected in the huge potion tubes.
Every tube, every tool that could reflect—
they all reproduced his image.
And in that reflection…
the Demon kept staring at Lein with the same face, a crooked smile and a mad gleam in his eyes.
Then, with his eyes open, Lein continued:
"My master gave me the chance to control one of his illusions. I used it to drag you here. Tell me, why do you think you can't change your shape anymore?"
Silence.
The Demon just kept staring, waiting for him to explain more.
His face remained the same: distorted by the glass, insane by nature.
Lein pointed to himself.
"It's simple. Since this illusion belongs to me, you can't enter it. Guess what you did to bypass that rule?"
The Demon seemed to think.
After a few seconds, he replied with dawning realization:
"I see… I stole… your mirror… identity… and in terms of… mysticism… we are… one… person."
Lein nodded.
"And what do you think happens if I die?"
The Demon said nothing.
Lein smirked.
"If I die… mystically speaking, you die too."
Hearing this, the Demon's face stretched into a grin far wider than Lein's.
He clapped, slowly, mockingly.
A bad feeling crept over Lein.
"Excellent! Simply… the best… But… you're wrong about… one thing…"
Lein clenched his teeth.
«I hope I've bought enough time.»
"You're… the best… at bluffing. Mixing… truth… and lies… But… you didn't know… that I… knew."
Lein shut his eyes again, just in case.
But still, he asked:
"What is it? What gave me away?"
A hoarse laugh from the Demon echoed through the room.
It sent chills crawling over his skin.
"He-he-he… The truth is… I… know about… the Story…"
Lein flinched.
The Demon went on:
"And that… we're not in… an illusion… but a fragment… of the Story. Too bad… you… don't know… Him either."
«He played the fool to squeeze out everything from me… How unlucky for him I don't know anything myself.»
Lein, eyes closed, smiled at the Demon—
wherever he was.
"You know what's the problem with all villains?" he suddenly asked.
Silence. The Demon didn't answer.
"They talk too much."
The moment Lein said it, the entire room was swallowed by darkness.
The stones that had brightly lit the basement blinked out.
«Finally!»
Lein opened his eyes.
Nothing but blackness—
not a single trace of light.
Guided by memory, Lein turned and walked straight ahead.
Through the dark, the familiar scent of blood grew stronger…
«The boar's corpse by the passage!»
Lein finally reached it and slipped past the body.
On the way, he tore off a sleeve and tied it over his eyes so they wouldn't catch any stray light.
The smell of the corpse faded behind him.
Panting and drenched in sweat, he climbed higher and higher up the stairs.
The darkness was suffocating…
And the path led into the unknown.
Every step into that unknown felt like an achievement.
And Lein kept making one "achievement" after another.
«How many damn steps are there?!» he cursed inwardly.
As he climbed, he heard the sound of mirrors shattering behind him, echoing through the corridor.
«Faster… damn it, faster!»
"Lein!.. We'll… meet… again!.." the Demon's echo reached him.
«Damn, damn, damn… When will this end!?»
And then, lifting his leg for the next step…
there was none.
«Damn…»
Lein lost his balance and crashed onto the floor.
"Haa… Huff… Never ran… this much in my life…"
Then he heard breathing—footsteps coming closer.
"Umm, are you, like, okay?" came Kyle's voice.
"Totally fine. Thanks to you," Lein replied.
He pushed himself up a little and said:
"As expected, darkness muffles all the mirror reflections. Too bad we probably won't catch the demon off guard now. He must know someone helped me—someone beyond his reach."
Kyle put a hand on his shoulder.
"You're lucky. I barely managed to shut off the light stones in time."
Lein shook his head.
"Lucky? And you're telling that to someone who has to kill a demon with no other choice? I almost died… Can you even call it good luck if it only works in emergencies? And if it weren't for you, oh yes, I'd be dead. By the way, how did you shut off those stones?"
«He's… already speaking Leithan this well? Not a single mistake…» Kyle thought.
Then, he smiled proudly and cleared his throat, though Lein couldn't see it.
"It's simple. After I heard your conversation on the way down, I immediately saw the problem…"
Lein cut him off:
"You remembered the demon can't affect you because your eyes don't reflect light, so you turned off the lights in your lab."
Kyle nodded, a bit annoyed, but still continued, pride creeping in:
"There's only one way to shut those stones off—you cut the energy that makes them glow. I, by the way, channel that energy into separate ether shards. They power the entire basement lighting system. I keep them all under my bed. The problem was, they were buried in the ground, so getting to them wasn't easy."
Lein shook his head.
"Didn't get a damn thing. Well, wait… maybe everything except two points: what exactly are ether shards, and how can they power things remotely?"
Kyle shrugged.
"How should I know how they channel energy? I didn't build this place. I just know what I need. As for the ether shards—just think of them as a storage for a type of energy called Ether. I don't know where it's sourced, but I've heard it's very hard to obtain."
Lein nodded.
Then, suddenly, his stomach growled loudly.
"I'm hungry…"
Kyle sighed.
"Me too… Too bad the food's downstairs."
Lein smiled.
"Eh, if only there were someone immune to the demon's senses… Someone who could walk freely through the basement without worrying, while there's still time…"
Kyle gritted his teeth.
"Should've cooked the boar outside…"
He sighed and asked, looking at Lein:
"You do realize it's way too heavy, right?"
Lein nodded.
"Not planning to help?" he asked again.
Lein nodded.
"Did you forget how to talk? Why just nodding?"
Lein smiled…
And nodded.