The sky above the mirror city never changed. It was an eternal twilight, an expanse of electric purple and indigo that seemed to press down on the crystal spires, as if wanting to drive them back into the ground from which they had exploded. Hayjin and Zhilian advanced along the main avenue, a road paved with a black, polished stone that reflected their silhouettes like a dark mirror.
The surrounding environment was a symphony of impossible geometries. The palaces were not built, but seemed to have grown following the laws of minerals. Balconies of blue quartz jutted into the void like blades, and arches of translucent amethyst connected towers that defied gravity, curving upward like claws ready to snatch the clouds. The hum of the crystals had become white noise, a vibration Hayjin felt deep inside the fillings of his teeth.
"Look over there," Hayjin whispered, gesturing with a nod toward the interior of a ruined portico.
Among the shadows of the crystal columns, silhouettes moved with a dreamlike slowness. They looked like wild cats or perhaps monkeys, but their bodies were covered in a crust of blue crystalline formations that sprouted from their skin like scales. Their eye sockets were empty, filled only with a luminescent glow that followed their every step.
"What are those things, Zhilian? They look like... moving crystals," Hayjin asked, feeling a shiver run down his spine.
Zhilian tightened her grip on her light scepter, not taking her eyes off the creatures. "I don't know, Hayjin. There's no trace of these creatures in the bestiaries of Opes. Probably beings that adapted to live here for millennia, or perhaps it's the dungeon itself consuming flesh to turn it into glass. In any case, stay close to me."
Hayjin stopped, leaning his hands on his knees and panting. The air in that dimension was thin, charged with ozone and mineral dust. "Zhilian... wait. I'm tired. My head is spinning and this sword weighs like an anvil. Let's stop for a moment, let's catch our breath, please, just for a second."
The princess turned, her gaze stern but veiled with a hint of concern. "We can't, Hayjin. We're in a race. Doeken is already in their dungeon and Adeline was clear: the first one back wins. We need to figure out where the magical object is before we allow ourselves the luxury of resting. Once we've identified the target, we'll find a safe corner, I promise. But not now."
Hayjin huffed, running a hand through his sweaty hair. "Always the workaholic... alright, you convinced me. But if I faint, you're dragging me by the feet."
Just as he was about to stand back up, a sharp sound, like breaking glass, echoed behind him. From the shadows of a pile of debris, a crystal wolf a mass of sharp edges and quartz teeth leaped out with frightening speed, aiming for the boy's throat.
"Hayjin, down!" Zhilian shouted.
Without even turning around, the princess unleashed a bolt of pure light. The shot hit the wolf mid-air, exploding in a white flash that pulverized the creature into a thousand inert fragments of diamonds and blood. Hayjin fell backward, his heart beating like a crazed drum.
"T-thanks," he muttered, checking to see if he was still in one piece. Then, with a trembling smile, he added: "You're certainly the flashy type. Couldn't you have just given it a kick?"
Zhilian laughed, a short and crystalline laugh. "This is just a little trick for me, idiot. You should have more faith in your bodyguard."
"Wait... shouldn't I be the one... who's supposed to protect you?" said a suspicious Hayjin.
Zhilian countered with a mocking smile. "Yes, but let's just say, given your current state..."
But the smile died on her lips. Behind her, a giant lynx, made entirely of transparent crystals and dotted with sharp points, emerged from the ceiling of a collapsed building, landing noiselessly. Before Hayjin could scream a warning, Zhilian performed a fluid pirouette, evoking a blade of solid light between her hands. With a perfect vertical slash, she severed the lynx into two symmetrical parts before it could even hiss.
"See? I told you," she said, ideally sheathing her magic and brushing an imaginary speck of dust off her shoulder. "I'm a prodigy, admit it."
Hayjin stood up, dusting off his pants. "Yes, yes, you're great. A bit too arrogant for my taste, but great," he replied with a forced smile to hide the shock.
However, their truce lasted only a few seconds. From the side streets, dozens of blue reflections began to converge toward them. More wolves, lynxes, and deformed creatures, all made of that sentient mineral, were coming out into the open.
"Okay, there are definitely way too many! Running? I vote for running!" Hayjin exclaimed.
"Alright, let's run!" Zhilian replied.
A frantic chase began through the ruins of the glass metropolis. Zhilian fired discharges of light backward, striking down the monsters in the front row, but for every creature that fell, three more seemed to emerge from the crystalline floors. They were unstoppable.
"They never end! They'll crush us like ants!" Zhilian cried out, starting to feel the fatigue.
From the shadows emerged creatures that looked like nightmares born from a broken prism: Crystal Spiders as big as shields, with razor-like legs screeching on the pavement; skinless Silica Hounds, whose muscles were bundles of pulsing translucent fibers.
"Damn, they're everywhere!" Hayjin yelled, sprinting forward as a spider plummeted from a portico ceiling, missing his shoulder by millimeters.
The pursuit immediately became a hell of reflections and shards. Zhilian ran ahead, clearing the path with short bursts of light that made enemies falter, but the city seemed to play against them. Every time they turned a corner, the street seemed to stretch or shrink.
"Left! Get into that passage!" Hayjin shouted, pointing to a gap between two leaning buildings.
They ducked into the narrow alley, with Hayjin feeling the frozen breath of the hounds at his heels. One of them leaped, catching the hem of his cloak with its quartz teeth.
"Get it off me!" Hayjin roared.
Zhilian turned mid-air, firing a point-blank light bolt that pulverized the creature's head, but the impact threw her off balance. Hayjin caught her on the fly, dragging her away while a wave of spiders covered the hound's corpse to use it as a launchpad.
"They don't stop! The more we kill, the more the dungeon generates!" Zhilian panted, sweat beading on her forehead. She threw a trail of white fire behind her to create a temporary barrier, but the crystal monsters, indifferent to pain, crossed the flames, letting their limbs melt just to not lose their prey.
They burst into a circular square, surrounded by statues of knights crystallized in agony. It was a psychological dead end. The creatures were jumping down from the roofs, surrounding them. The sound had become unbearable: a metallic screeching of thousands of legs converging toward the center.
"Zhilian, the barrier! Now!"
The princess erected a dome of light, but the monsters began to slam against it with suicidal ferocity. Crack. A fissure appeared on the magical surface. Crack. Another one.
"I can't hold it for much longer, Hayjin! There are too many, the pressure of their mana is consuming mine!" Zhilian was on her knees, hands stretched upward, the muscles in her arms trembling from the effort.
Hayjin looked around frantically, activating his analytical vision. He looked around with the eyes of a condemned man searching for a miracle. His mind began to process data at an insane speed: sound frequency, tower angles, debris mass. His eyes darted to a gigantic tower soaring right in front of them, leaning dangerously toward the street. Its structure was furrowed by deep cracks at the base, held together only by large blocks of crystal under pressure.
"Zhilian! See that tower? We have to make it collapse!" Hayjin yelled, pointing to a specific spot where three support pillars intersected. "If we hit that junction point, the entire structure will collapse onto the street!"
"It's a gamble! If we time it wrong, we'll end up underneath it!" she replied while dodging a wolf's claw.
"Trust me! Prepare your most powerful strike, charge it with all the light you have!"
Hayjin drew his resonance sword. He felt the vibration of the dungeon flowing through the hilt. He began to run toward the edge of the barrier, just as a hound managed to slip a clawed paw through a crack in the light.
"GET READY!" Hayjin screamed.
As Zhilian's barrier shattered with a sound like a breaking glass, Hayjin did not retreat. Despite his low mana, he channeled that tiny bit of wind magic he possessed, making it vibrate at the crystal's natural frequency. When they were a few meters from the tower, Hayjin struck the weak point with surgical precision. The metal of the sword rang out, transmitting a destructive vibration that amplified the existing cracks.
The sword drove deep into the critical point of the tower's crystalline structure. VROOOOM. A low-frequency hum shook the city's foundations.
"NOW, ZHILIAN! STRIKE!"
Zhilian did not hesitate. She gathered every single ounce of mana; her eyes became two miniature suns. The princess fired a beam of concentrated light exactly where Hayjin had created the vibrating breach. The effect was devastating. The crystal exploded, and with a roar of stone and glass shattering, the tower began to tilt. The two accelerated to their limit, passing the base of the structure just as it came down with an apocalyptic crash.
For an instant, time seemed to stand still. Then, the roar of the collapse.
The tower began to give way, leaning with a majestic and terrifying slowness. The crystal creatures, for the first time, stopped attacking, raising their glassy heads toward the disaster falling from the sky.
"RUN!" Hayjin grabbed Zhilian's hand and pulled her away, as tons of glowing rubble and crystal dust rained down behind them, crushing the entire army of monsters in a single, definitive chime of mineral death.
They emerged on the other side of the dust, covered in blue ash, coughing and trembling, while silence returned to reign over the square, now buried under a mountain of broken glass.
A massive cloud of blue dust rose, covering everything. When visibility returned, the road behind them was blocked by tons of rubble. The monsters had been crushed or were stuck on the other side.
Zhilian, carried by the adrenaline, grabbed Hayjin and pulled him into a suffocating hug. "We did it! You were a genius, Hayjin! A real genius!"
Hayjin, blushing violently and smelling Zhilian's scent despite the dust, stood petrified for an instant. She noticed, immediately let go, and turned away, frantically fixing her hair with her cheeks on fire.
"Uhm... yes, well, there's no time for these things now. We have to go," she said with a trembling voice, trying to regain her dignity.
"Yeah... you did all the work with that final shot, anyway," Hayjin muttered, scratching his head awkwardly.
They turned to resume their path and froze. Before them, at the end of the avenue, loomed a structure that made the tower they just felled look like a toy. It was a titanic spire, made of a black and transparent crystal that seemed to absorb light.
At the top of the tower, perched like an ancient sovereign, sat a gigantic Wyvern. Its wings were membranes of solidified light, and its body was covered in crystal scales that faded violently from blood red to electric blue. Its eyes were two beacons of pure energy staring at the small intruders below.
"Incredible..." Hayjin murmured, eyes wide. "It's a magnificent dragon. Look at how it reflects the light..."
"Stupid!" Zhilian interrupted him, giving him a flick on the head. "That's a wyvern, not a dragon! Wyverns only have two legs and wings; dragons have four legs. It's an elementary distinction!"
"Oh come on, they're the same thing, they breathe fire and they fly," he retorted, rubbing his head.
Zhilian ignored his ignorance and stared at the creature with extreme seriousness. "It's him. The guardian of the dungeon. And if the logic of these places hasn't changed... the mysterious object is kept right up there, beneath its claws."
The wyvern spread its wings, emitting a crystalline roar that shook the entire city, only to then settle back down to sleep...
The roar of the tower that had collapsed behind them was still echoing through the glass palaces, a metallic wail that was slowly dying out. The blue dust, fine as magical flour, floated in the air, settling on Hayjin's shoulders and in Zhilian's blue hair. Yet, despite that auditory cataclysm that should have shaken the entire dungeon, the creature at the top of the black spire had not moved an inch.
The two remained motionless, almost without breathing, staring at the imposing silhouette of the Wyvern of Two Lights. Its red and blue crystal wings were folded against its body symmetrically, creating a purple reflection on the tower's surface.
"It's absurd," Zhilian whispered, still convulsively gripping her scepter, ready to evoke an instant barrier. "It's... it's impossible. We just knocked down a building of at least ten stories. How could it not have noticed us? Even a deaf dragon would have woken up with a racket like that."
Hayjin didn't answer immediately. He brought a hand to his eyes, narrowing them to focus. He activated what little analytical perception his brain allowed him without the aid of technological tools, studying the creature's head. He noticed a strange reflection, a sort of translucent veil covering the wyvern's enormous sockets. It wasn't that the eyes were closed; it was something else.
"Look closely at the head, Zhilian," Hayjin murmured, without taking his eyes off it. "See that kind of glassy membrane over the sockets? Those aren't its real eyes. They are nictitating membranes, but transparent. They function like protective screens. In my world... well, where I come from, there are animals that have them to protect themselves while swimming or flying, but here they seem different."
"What do you mean?" she asked, lowering her guard slightly, intrigued.
"I think it's sleeping. But a deep, almost lethargic sleep," Hayjin explained, running a hand over his sweaty forehead. "Those eyelids probably serve to filter excessive light or to trigger only in case of immediate physical danger. As long as we stay out of its direct sensory range or don't hit it, its reptilian brain interprets ambient noises like our tower falling as simple 'dungeon events'. It's a crazy tactical advantage; basically, it's in energy-saving mode."
Zhilian let out a sigh of relief, but it lasted only a moment. She turned toward the road separating them from the black spire, and her face darkened instantly.
Before them, the crystal metropolis stretched out in an inextricable tangle of broken bridges, squares submerged by giant stalagmites, and deep chasms that seemed to cut the city in half. The Wyvern's spire, which from a distance seemed close, now appeared for what it was: a colossus kilometers away, separated by a series of neighborhoods that looked like a labyrinth designed by a madman.
"Damn," Hayjin snapped, dropping down to sit on a piece of smooth rubble. "Look down there. That main road is interrupted by at least three ground fractures. We'd have to go down to the lower levels, come back up, go around that block of buildings... Zhilian, it could take hours. Maybe half a day if we're lucky and don't meet any more giant spiders."
"We don't have time, Hayjin," she replied, frustration leaking from her tone. She put her hands on her hips, scanning the horizon impatiently. "Evelyn and Atlas are surely already in the heart of their dungeon. If we keep walking at this pace, by the time we get to the tower, they'll have already taken the object and be getting complimented by the Sages."
"Well, unless I learn to fly or you decide to carry me on your back and jump from roof to roof, the geography doesn't change!" Hayjin retorted, waving his arms toward the expanse of ruins. "We're on foot, in a city made of sharp glass, surrounded by monsters. I don't think we have many choices, you know."
Zhilian wasn't listening to him anymore. She was observing the structures above them. The blue crystal suspension bridges, though fragile and fragmented, seemed to connect the high parts of the city in a much more direct way than the surface streets.
"You're right," she said, surprising him. "The road is too long and the ground is a mess. We have to stop looking down. We need to find a shorter and more accessible path, but... up high. See those resonance cables connecting the minor spires?"
Hayjin looked up, following the princess's finger. "Are you kidding? Those are as thin as cobwebs. And they're at a height that makes me want to puke just thinking about it."
"They are magical paths, Hayjin. If we can reach the platform of that clock tower over there," she pointed to a structure about three hundred meters away, "we could use the mana flow channels to shorten the journey by seventy percent. We'd arrive almost at the base of the Wyvern's spire in less than thirty minutes."
Hayjin looked at the clock tower, then at his dirty boots, and finally sighed deeply, standing up with effort to think. "Twenty years of sedentary life in front of a monitor and now I have to be an acrobat on glass wires."
Then he retorted in a doubtful voice: "Fantastic. Truly fantastic."
"Stop complaining," Zhilian said with a sly smile, grabbing him by the sleeve. "Think of the positive side: the view from up there is beautiful. And if you fall, at least you won't have to worry about being tired."
"Your sense of humor is becoming contagious, and that scares me," Hayjin replied, but he began to follow her. "Alright, princess. Lead me to this 'accessible' path. But if that flying lizard wakes up while we're hanging by a thread, I swear I'll use you as a human shield."
"Yeah, yeah, as if you had the guts to do it," she retorted, waving the idea away as they began to make their way through the rubble, searching for the first climbing point toward the crystal skies. Every step they took brought them closer to the guardian, and while the wyvern's silence continued to reign supreme, Hayjin couldn't help but think that the silence was just the calm before a devastating storm.