The Foyer of Reflections had become a kaleidoscope of violence. Jax was locked in a grapple with a Mirror-Jax, their hydraulic gauntlets creating a rhythmic thunder that threatened to shatter the crystalline floor. Sia was frantically weaving light-filaments, but every cage she spun was instantly unraveled by a Mirror-Sia who knew her logic before she even executed it.
But the center of the storm was Kael and the Mirror-Double.
Their fists met in the center of the room, a clash of Platinum and Violet energy that created a "Zero-G" vacuum. The Mirror-Kael moved with a terrifying, weightless grace—he had all of Kael's Aries speed but none of the Taurus burden.
"You're slow, Prime," the Mirror-Double mocked, his voice a perfect, chilling echo. He spun in mid-air, his obsidian cloak trailing violet sparks. "You carry the weight of Z-Town, the weight of the Sump, the weight of those pathetic 'friends.' I am Kael without the anchors. I am the Sovereign of the Sky."
The Mirror-Double slammed a palm into Kael's chest. It wasn't a punch; it was a Phase-Burst. Kael felt his molecules vibrate, trying to drift apart.
[WARNING: MOLECULAR COHERENCY AT 72%] [ZODIAC SYNC: 3.5% (GEMINI)] [ADVICE: USE THE BHY KHAY NULLIFIER]
Kael skidded back, his boots carving grooves into the liquid chrome. He reached for the silver cylinder Bhy Khay had given him, but his hand stopped.
"No," Kael whispered, blood coughing from his lungs. "If I use the Nullifier, I only buy sixty seconds. Vespera has a whole city of mirrors. I don't need to anchor myself... I need to overload the reflection."
"Kael, I'm losing her!" Sia screamed from the distance, her light-filaments snapping. "The Other-Lyra is 90% synchronized! If she hits 100, the real Lyra's mind will be deleted!"
Kael looked at the Mirror-Double charging at him. He looked at Lady Vespera, who sat on her floating throne like a bored goddess. Then, he looked at his own hands.
"You think you can mirror me because you know my power," Kael said, his voice dropping into a frequency that made the silver rivers in the walls stop flowing. "But you only know what I've shown the world."
Kael didn't raise his guard. He opened his arms.
[INTERNAL LOGIC SHIFT: ARIES-TAURUS COLLAPSE]
"I am the Aries: The Beginning," Kael chanted, his platinum eyes turning a blinding, singular white. "And I am the Taurus: The Foundation."
He didn't fight the Gemini Split. He forced it.
Kael funneled the entirety of his Taurus weight into his left side and the entirety of his Aries kinetic speed into his right. He created a Biological Paradox. His body became a living contradiction—half-infinite mass, half-infinite velocity.
The Mirror-Double froze. He tried to copy the state, but his violet resonance began to flicker and scream. The Gemini logic could mirror a state of being, but it could not mirror a Structural Collapse.
"Mirror this," Kael growled.
Kael moved. He didn't run; he folded space.
Because he was both "Immovable" and "Unstoppable," the mirrors in the room couldn't decide which version to project. The Liquid Chrome walls began to crack. The silver rivers turned to gray ash.
Kael appeared in front of the Mirror-Double. He didn't punch. He simply touched the Double's forehead with two fingers.
"The Law of One."
Kael injected his Year 3 Absolute Density into the Mirror-Double's Phase-body. The Double didn't explode; he solidified. The weightless, violet phantom was suddenly forced to weigh ten thousand tons.
The Mirror-Double let out a soundless shriek as his crystalline structure shattered under its own newly-created weight. He dissolved into a pile of harmless violet glass shards.
The backlash hit the room like a physical shockwave. Vespera's throne dipped toward the floor. The Other-Lyra stumbled, the silver light in her eyes flickering as the data-link to the "Real" Lyra was severed by the sheer static of Kael's paradox.
"Kael!" Lyra's voice returned to the neural link, gasping and sobbing with relief. "I'm back! I've got control!"
Kael stood in the center of the shattered foyer, his breath coming in ragged, platinum-tinted clouds. His Sovereign Vanguard mantle was torn, but the white light on his arms was now interlaced with thin, violet threads.
[ZODIAC SYNC: 10% (GEMINI)] [NEW ABILITY UNLOCKED: PHASE-STRIKE] The user can now strike targets in the 'Phase-Dimension,' ignoring physical shields.
Kael turned his gaze toward Lady Vespera. The "Bored Goddess" was now standing, her kaleidoscope eyes filled with a mixture of fascination and genuine alarm.
"You broke the mirror," Vespera whispered. "No one has ever broken the mirror by becoming the fracture."
"I'm not here to be reflected, Vespera," Kael said, stepping over the glass remains of his double. "I'm here to take the Array. And every mirror you put in my way is just more glass for me to walk on."
[DEAD MAN'S SWITCH: 03:00:15] [STATUS: ASCENDING]