Chapter 24: The Mirror That Walks
The alarms screamed through the Resistance base like the wail of a dying world.
> "Perimeter breach. Unknown entity entering Sublevel 3."
Ares barked orders as soldiers scrambled into position.
"Lock the northern corridor!"
"Elira, get Nira out—now!"
"Move, move!"
But Elira didn't run.
She stood beside Nira, whose body trembled with cold—not from fear, but from something far worse.
"It's here," Nira whispered. "I can feel its footsteps inside my chest."
Elira touched her shoulder. "Stay with me. You're not alone."
But Nira's eyes—shimmering silver—were already distant.
> As if someone else was looking through them.
---
Sublevel 3: The First Kill
The steel corridor stretched long and empty. Steam hissed from broken vents.
Then… silence.
A Resistance guard crept forward, weapon raised.
His breath fogged in the air.
One more step—
CRACK.
A twisted blur of limbs slammed him into the ceiling.
Blood hit the walls in a frozen spray.
The monster landed in the hallway, bones popping as it straightened. Seven feet tall. Elongated fingers like frozen blades. And a grin carved across its face.
It tilted its head and sniffed the air.
"...Nira…" it rasped, voice layered with static and whispers.
---
Confrontation
Back in the lab, the lights flickered.
The temperature dropped. Frost spread across the windows.
"It's… me," Nira said, shivering. "Or what I could've become."
Elira stood in front of her. "Then we stop it."
Rhea burst into the room, pistol in hand. "It's tearing through my team like paper. What the hell is that thing?!"
"It's not just a clone," Elira said. "It's her mirror. The failure… or maybe the upgrade. Vira's shadow project."
The floor vibrated. Screams echoed through the vents. Then—
BOOM.
The reinforced door exploded off its hinges.
The monster stepped through the smoke… smiling at Nira.
---
The Monster Speaks
Everyone froze.
And then, the creature spoke.
> "You should have stayed with her," it said—in Nira's exact voice.
"We were meant to be one. Not broken pieces."
Nira staggered back.
Elira stepped between them. "She isn't you."
The monster's smile widened.
> "You're wrong. I am her. I'm what's buried under all the kindness, the weakness, the guilt. I'm what she'll become when you die."
It lunged.
Ares fired.
Bullets tore into its chest—but it didn't bleed.
It laughed, then slammed Ares against the wall, knocking him cold.
---
Nira's Stand
"I can't beat it," Nira whispered. "It's part of me."
"Yes, you can," Elira shouted. "You're not what she made you. You chose your path."
The monster turned to Nira again.
> "You were born to be cold," it purred. "To freeze the world and rule the ruins."
Nira shook her head.
"No… I was born to melt it."
She stepped forward.
Her hands sparked with ice—but it was different now. Controlled. Focused.
"I'm done being afraid of what I am."
And then—
She unleashed it.
---
Frost vs Frost
The air snapped with frozen lightning.
The room filled with swirling ice and howling wind.
The two Niras—one real, one monstrous—clashed in the center of the lab. Frost exploded against steel. Walls shattered. The glass melted from sheer pressure.
Elira and Rhea pulled the unconscious Ares to safety as the storm raged.
Inside it, Nira fought her own shadow.
Every blow, every blast, was a war between who she was and who she refused to be.
And in the end—
She screamed.
A wave of cold exploded from her core—
And the creature shattered into shards of glass-like ice.
---
Aftermath
Silence.
Smoke drifted through the wrecked lab. Snowflakes floated in the air.
Nira collapsed.
Elira rushed to her side, catching her just in time.
"I'm here," she whispered.
Nira opened her eyes, soft and silver. "It's gone…"
"No," Elira said. "You beat it. That means you're stronger than it ever was."
Rhea looked around
at the devastation.
"If Vira made that just to send a message," she said grimly, "we better be ready for whatever comes next."
Because this wasn't the end.
It was only the beginning.