"When gravity ships you together."
The air was still. Cold.
Drips of condensed mana echoed like water in a cave too deep to name. The faint blue glow from Mary's light spell cast just enough hue to paint the fractured walls around them.
Mary sat cross-legged, a vein twitching in her temple. Rhazor lay nearby, upside down, staring at the ceiling with his sword jammed point-first into the dirt beside him.
Rhazor exhaled, still staring up.
"Mary…"
Mary, not looking up from adjusting her boots: "Hm?"
"I could've sworn… I saw Asura grinning as we were falling."
Mary turned to him, slow. "You hit your head."
"No, seriously—like this creepy, calm smile. I swear—"
She raised a brow. "Rhazor, you need a doctor. No one smiles while falling to their death."
He opened his mouth, then paused, thinking about Asura. "…Okay, maybe he would."
Mary sighed, rubbing her forehead. "Fantastic. That means we're either lost, or we're in some godforsaken layer of this dungeon because he wanted to see what's down here."
She stood up, her mana glowing faintly around her fingers as she whispered,
"Song of Seeking: Resonant Pulse."
Soft notes echoed from her palms like sonar. The ripples bounced off the walls… then came back empty.
Mary frowned. "Nothing. No Asura. No Lucilla. Not even an echo."
Rhazor stretched his neck, his slit pupils narrowing as faint golden light glowed in them.
"Dragon Senses — Activate."
He sniffed the air, focused… and then frowned. "Nothing. No scent, no heartbeat, no mana trail. It's like they vanished completely."
Mary's lips tightened. "Perfect. The loudest idiot and the clingiest vampire both gone missing. This is fine. Totally fine."
Rhazor kicked a pebble. "At least it's quiet down here."
The pebble screamed.
Both froze.
Mary deadpanned. "…We are not investigating that."
Elsewhere—
A soft hum of mana drifted through the air, and Lucilla stirred. Something warm pressed against her cheek. It rose and fell in slow rhythm.
Her eyelashes fluttered open.
"Ugh… What happened…"
The smell of ozone, faint smoke, and something oddly comforting surrounded her. Her head rested on something firm, warm, alive—
Her eyes shot wide.
It was a chest.
Her gaze trailed down—flat stomach, faint scars, bare skin, White hair tousled against cool stone. Asura lay beneath her, unconscious, looking entirely too peaceful for someone who just fell several stories through solid rock.
Lucilla blinked, flushed, and whispered,
"H-he broke my fall…?"
She propped herself up slightly on her arms—her palms pressed into his chest. It rose with each slow, steady breath. Her fingers traced instinctively over his collarbone before she realized what she was doing.
She swallowed hard. "Why… why is he kind of cute like this…?"
The vampire side of her was screaming snack.
The girl side of her was screaming snuggle.
Her face heated, and before she could decide which voice to listen to, she leaned in a little closer—her lips inches from his.
Then—
Asura's eyes opened.
Golden, glowing faintly, confused but awake.
"...Uh."
He blinked once, his cheeks just barely turning red. "Lucilla, are you… about to bite me or kiss me? Just asking for context."
Lucilla froze, her pupils dilating. "W-what? N-no!"
She moved to push herself up—and then froze again.
Asura's hand was still firmly on her butt—where it had instinctively caught her mid-fall.
She blinked.
He blinked.
Silence.
"Oh. So that's what this warm thing is," Asura said blankly.
Lucilla's eye twitched. "Get your hand off."
He lifted it slowly, as if testing for gravity. "...My bad. Pure reflex. I usually wake up holding my pillow like that."
Lucilla crossed her arms, glaring down at him, cheeks redder than her eyes. "You're impossible."
"You're welcome for the landing, by the way," Asura teased, sitting up and dusting off his pajama sleeve. "I didn't even know I was this good as a mattress."
Lucilla shot him a look that could melt glaciers.
"You're lucky you're cute."
Asura grinned. "You said it, not me."
Lucilla turned away to hide her face, sniffing the air. Her crimson eyes narrowed, the humor fading.
"I smell blood. That way."
She pointed down a narrow corridor dimly lit by pulsing blue crystals embedded in the stone.
Asura stood, stretching his back. "Blood, huh? Not exactly comforting, but sounds like fun."
Lucilla sighed. "Only you would say that."
He shrugged, following her. "Hey, maybe it's a monster. Maybe it's treasure. Maybe it's another floor boss who'll drop XP."
Lucilla smiled faintly despite herself. "You really treat life like a game, don't you?"
"Nah," Asura said with a grin, hands behind his head. "Just playing my role as protagonist."
As they walked into the dim corridor, faint sounds echoed in the distance—footsteps, whispers, maybe even… laughter.
Lucilla's hand tightened around Asura's sleeve.
"Asura…"
He smiled over his shoulder. "Relax. I'll protect you."
Then, with perfect timing, the ceiling groaned ominously above them.
Lucilla deadpanned. "You had to say it, didn't you?"
Asura chuckled.
✦ The Blood Trail and the Doppelgänger
"Echoes of faces not their own."
The path twisted down in silence—if silence could drip. Every step Lucilla took left faint red prints on the stone, not her own blood but the faint residue of the scent she was following. The air was thicker here, like breathing through fog laced with iron.
Asura walked beside her, hands in his pockets, humming to himself like they weren't in a haunted blood-soaked dungeon.
"Y'know," he started casually, eyes half-lidded, "you were really close to kissing me earlier."
Lucilla's crimson eyes slid toward him, flat and unbothered. "Was I?"
"You were. I saw the lean-in, the closed eyes, the dramatic pause—it was like an anime scene."
Lucilla blinked slowly. "Asura, if you're going to dream, do it while sleeping, not walking."
He smirked. "You're denying it pretty confidently for someone whose heart was racing."
Lucilla's expression didn't change, but her ears turned red.
"My heart races when I'm hungry."
"Yeah? You gonna bite my lips next time, then?"
She turned away, calm as ever. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
Asura grinned triumphantly—until a familiar text flickered in his peripheral vision.
[ＡＥＴＨＥＲＢＯＲＮ : The Vampire girl was Absolutely going to kiss you.]
Asura froze mid-step, cheeks instantly heating.
[ＳＹＳＴＥＭ : This is not Relevant to the current mission. ]
[ＡＥＴＨＥＲＢＯＲＮ : No, it's entertaining. ]
Lucilla glanced back, noticing his silence. "What's wrong? Vampire guilt kicking in?"
He scratched his cheek. "Nah, just… my brain's being annoying again."
Lucilla smirked faintly, sensing weakness. "Oh? You look flushed. Don't tell me you're shy now, little demon prince."
Asura's tail of aura flickered briefly behind him, betraying his embarrassment. "I'm not shy—just… processing betrayal from my own head voices."
Lucilla laughed softly, the sound echoing down the hall like silver bells in a crypt.
✦ The Arena Beneath the Ice
The tunnel widened into an enormous cavern—an underground arena. Half-frozen corpses of monsters lay scattered across cracked tiles, frozen mid-attack. Weapons of ice and bone jutted from the ground like thorns.
At the center stood a figure laughing quietly to itself—a sound like velvet wrapped around razors.
Its silhouette shimmered.
A woman's upper body, pale skin glowing under faint mana light. Long white hair spilled down her shoulders. Scarlet eyes like molten blood traced invisible shapes in the air.
Below her waist—spider legs, sleek and chitinous, ending in talons that scraped against stone. From her back unfurled black dragon wings that twitched lazily, scattering frost as if shedding feathers.
She tilted her head, smile too wide.
"Visitors? Ah… new toys."
Lucilla's fangs bared instinctively. "That's… no normal monster."
Asura squinted. "System. What am I looking at?"
[ＳＹＳＴＥＭ : A Variant-class monster. Classification: Mimic (Evolved). ]
Before the system could elaborate, a second line appeared beneath it—different font, smoother, smug.
[ＡＥＴＨＥＲＢＯＲＮ : Not just any mimic. This one's tetra-type. It's eaten enough races to become… unstable.]
Asura's brows rose. "So… half spider, half dragon, half nightmare fuel?"
[ＡＥＴＨＥＲＢＯＲＮ : Correct. ]
[ＳＹＳＴＥＭ : Current Detection → AFFECTS: Illusion, Psychic, Transmutation. Ability: Victims may view their past before death. ]
Asura tilted his head. "So it can play therapy and kill me? Great combo."
Lucilla frowned. "Then what's it doing just standing there?"
"Probably choosing which of us looks tastier," Asura said dryly.
[ＡＥＴＨＥＲＢＯＲＮ : Not wrong. ]
Asura rolled his eyes. "Not helping."
[ＡＥＴＨＥＲＢＯＲＮ : Didn't say I was trying. ]
He sighed and lifted a hand.
[ APPRAISAL — ACTIVE ]
Name: ???
Race: Mimic (Evolved Hybrid – Unknown Origin)
Level: 890
Threat Level: Disaster-tier
HP: 3,200,000
MP: 1,900,000
STR: 920,000
AGI: 1,420,000
INT: 920,000
VIT: 720,000
LUK: 7,200
Core Affinity: Illusion / Fleshcraft / Unknown Residual
Unique Skill: Reflection Feast – Can mirror and devour mana signatures and fragments of memory and form.
Special Trait:Mirrored Mind – Takes the appearance of the strongest being the observer subconsciously fears or admires.
Asura's golden eyes flickered. "Well, that's mildly horrifying."
Lucilla whispered, "Then what does it look like to you?"
He smirked faintly. "Guess we'll find out."
✦ The Mirror Perspective
Elsewhere—another part of the dungeon, another echo of the same arena.
Mary and Rhazor stood at the opposite side, watching the exact same figure standing in the center—identical, but not quite. The air shimmered like a mirage, and the mimic's face flickered through a dozen forms.
Rhazor squinted. "Wait… that— that looks like Asura."
Mary frowned, stepping forward. "It… does. But something's off. The aura's wrong. That thing's not him."
Rhazor tilted his head. "Are you sure? Maybe he unlocked another transformation or something—like, Asura v3.0?"
Mary folded her arms. "Rhazor, if that was Asura, we'd already be running for our lives."
He paused. "…Fair point."
The mimic's laughter drifted toward them—soft, melodic, and terrifyingly familiar.
"Come closer… let me see what you fear most."
Mary's pulse spiked; Rhazor tightened his grip on his sword.
And somewhere, deep beneath the mirrored illusion, Asura and Lucilla stepped forward at the exact same moment—
unaware that they were facing two sides of the same monster.