Chương 189: The Terrifying Authority of the Mirror

If the magical girl's body, made of magic, is a pure and sacred temple...

Therefore, pure ethereal energy is a deadly poison capable of completely dismantling this temple and reducing it to chaos.

The moment the jet-black dagger, made of pure ethereal energy, pierced Xingxian's abdomen, it immediately transformed into a raging torrent of ethereal energy, ravaging her pure magical body.

Two completely different forces used Xingxian's body as their battlefield and began the most primitive and cruel mutual annihilation.

An indescribable, excruciating pain overwhelmed all her senses like a landslide or tsunami, leaving her unable to even utter the faintest scream.

The core of magic within her body, "Tears of the Star," instinctively mobilized all its power the moment it sensed the invasion of alien energy, attempting to consume the ethereal energy that was frantically destroying her body.

Because of this, Xingxian not only had to endure the excruciating pain within her body that felt like it was tearing her apart, but also completely lost the ability to move before the process ended, unable to mobilize even a trace of magic power for attack, defense, or self-healing.

It can be said that she has now completely become a fish on a chopping board, at the mercy of others.

However, the physical pain suffered seemed so insignificant compared to the immense mental blow.

Xingxian collapsed weakly onto the cold, mirrored platform. Even lifting a single finger was incredibly difficult, yet she still struggled to support her swaying body with her hands, trying not to fall completely.

This is the last act of defiance and dignity of an inspector of the magic kingdom.

She raised her head and stared intently at "Yuexi," who, after plunging the dagger into her own abdomen, released her grip, stood up slowly with an expressionless face, and then stood quietly to the side like an exquisite doll, her eyes filled with confusion and heartache.

She couldn't believe it—she simply couldn't believe that her comrade, who had once fought alongside her to protect the world, would commit such an unforgivable act of betrayal.

Yuexi—she must be under uncontrollable pressure, she must be enduring something far greater than herself.

A deeper pain! It must be!

"Hahahaha!"

Just as Xingxian's thoughts were in turmoil, a burst of unrestrained, joyful laughter suddenly came from not far away.

Jingjue's figure slowly descended from mid-air, taking elegant steps as if dancing a waltz, and calmly walked towards Xingxian, who was kneeling on the ground.

He stopped less than a meter from Xingxian, his hands casually in the pockets of his trench coat. He looked down at this "trophy" who could barely lift her head, yet still stared at him with stubborn eyes. The smiling mask on her face looked even more eerie in the surrounding strange light.

"Is there anything else you'd like to say, my dear—Inspector?" he asked smugly, his voice full of mockery.

Xingxian ignored his mockery. She gritted her teeth, strained to lift her head, and stubbornly looked past Jingjue, fixing her gaze on the expressionless "Yuexi" behind him. Her voice was hoarse as she questioned, "What did you—do to Yuexi—? Why—why would she—do such a thing?"

Looking at Xingxian's disheveled yet unyielding state, Jingjue let out another burst of joyful laughter.

Then, he turned around and went to the doll-like "Yuexi". He reached out his hand, which was wearing a white silk glove, and roughly pinched her delicate cheek, shaking it a few times as if showing off his possession.

"Oh my, look at that expression on your face—do you really want to know why? My dear Inspector."

"Come on, let me give you a few interesting options, you can try to guess them."

"Perhaps I used some special method to completely control her mind?"

"Or perhaps, I coerced her into doing this by threatening the lives of my other missing companions?"

"Or—" Jingjue's tone suddenly became incredibly playful, "she might—willingly want to kill you?"

"This—impossible! Yuexi would never—cough cough—" Xingxian desperately wanted to refute this most impossible and unacceptable statement, but her emotional outburst aggravated her internal injuries, causing her to cough violently.

"Impossible? What's impossible about it?" Jingjue released his grip on Yuexi's cheek, looking at Xingxian's excited expression with interest, and asked in return.

He slowly squatted down, bringing his face close to Xingxian's, as if sharing an interesting secret with her. His voice was soft yet every word was piercing: "As the inspector of the Magic Kingdom, haven't you dealt with a few of your own kind who have rebelled?"

"Are there very few magical girls who, harboring deep hatred for Esmeralda, have turned to our great Void Realm as a form of depravity?"

"Inspector, if you continue to hold onto the ridiculous idea that magical girls would never betray you, then I can only say—" Jingjue's tone suddenly turned icy cold, devoid of any emotion.

"—You are so naive."

Xingxian looked at Yuexi, who showed no reaction to anything Jingjue did, and listened to the vicious words that sounded like the whispers of a devil in her ear, but her determination did not waver.

Instead, she keenly noticed an extremely eerie detail.

Why?

Why did this "Moon Tide" remain completely unresponsive from beginning to end? It's like a soulless puppet.

Xingxian's gaze fell on "Yuexi" again. Recalling the mirroring ability that Jingjue had previously demonstrated, a terrifying guess uncontrollably emerged from the bottom of her heart.

With an incredulous tone and a trembling voice, she asked, "You—not only can you create a mirror image of yourself—you can even—create a mirror image of us magical girls?"

"This—how is this possible?!"

Bingo~ Congratulations, you got it right!

This time, it wasn't Jingjue who spoke, but "Yuexi," who had been standing still like an exquisite doll.

The moment Xingxian uttered that guess, her previously dull eyes suddenly became lively, flashing with the same playful and malicious light as Jingjue's.

Xingxian's pupils suddenly contracted as she looked incredulously at "Yuexi," who should have been standing there motionless.

Although both her voice and appearance were exactly the same as the magical girl Yuexi that Xingshuang had met that night— However, she could clearly perceive that the inner essence of this "Moon Tide" was the disgusting soul of Mirror Lord, filled with a twisted and insane flavor!

But—why?

Another question arose in Xingxian's mind.

Why is it that a body whose inner soul is a "puppet" of the Mirror Lord, an apostle of the illusory world, can emit such pure magical energy fluctuations?!

The mirror image of "Yuexi" walked briskly to Xingxian, reached out, and pinched Xingxian's chin with its cool fingertips, forcing her to look up at its own face, which was indistinguishable from the real Yuexi. With a grin, it asked, "Can you feel it? The magic unique to the new moon, 'Yuexi,' that's contained within this body of mine?"

"This—this is impossible!" Xingxian murmured again, her eyes filled with disbelief and shock.

"Your ability is essentially derived from illusory energy! You clearly only created a mirror image of Yuexi, so why—" Why is she emitting waves of magical energy?!

"Heh, if it's just a clumsy imitation of appearance, then shouldn't you have immediately noticed something was wrong when you were risking your life to save me?"

"Yuexi" chuckled and asked in return, her voice full of mockery of Xingxian's naivety.

The moment Xingxian heard this answer, she completely realized what was going on.

—So it turns out—from the very beginning—from the moment I entered this mirrored maze, he had already foreseen all my thoughts and actions.

Whether it was saving the erosion-level void beast that served as the "anchor point" or releasing "Moon Tide" as bait, it was all part of a carefully designed script to lure him into this final trap!

An unprecedented and intense sense of frustration caused Xingxian's body to tremble uncontrollably.

"That's right, my authority over the mirror" can do much more than simply create a few empty reflections.

The real Mirror Lord slowly stepped forward and stood beside the "Moon Tide" mirror image, explaining his abilities to his pitiful "audience" in a tone full of pride and boastfulness.

"It can perfectly replicate everything, from the inside out," including the body's structure, the source of power, and even—that unique technique closely connected to the laws of the soul—"

"Even for magical entities like you, whose magical composition is fundamentally different from our Void Realm Apostles, I can perfectly—create mirror images of you~" As if to confirm Jingjue's words, the image of "Yuexi" slowly raised her right hand, and in her palm, a bright crescent moon radiating soft light quietly appeared.

That was a spell unique to the magical girl Yuexi—"Moonlight Wheel".

"No—impossible—" Xingxian murmured again, his eyes completely unfocused.

"Unique techniques are the prototypes of laws, and laws—laws are unique! They can never be controlled by anyone else!"

But the facts were already laid bare before her, leaving her no room for denial.

She immediately realized that the reason Jingjue would go to such lengths to tell her these unbelievable truths was perhaps because he wanted to— Jingjue seemed to read her mind and gently clapped his hands.

"That's right, my lord inspector, you've finally figured it out."

"Do you know why I was so happy when I learned you had the ability to manipulate 'time'?"

"Because—your power, your identity, everything about you—can immediately be used by me!"

"I feel like I could use them to do some really interesting things, like—using your status as the highly respected Inspector-Governor, to personally hunt down those magical girl companions who trust you implicitly."

"Isn't this script fantastic?"

A morbid excitement gleamed in Jingjue's eyes as he stepped forward and extended his right hand toward Xingxian, who had completely lost the ability to resist.

"No—no—I absolutely—will not let you succeed!"

Xingxian instinctively tried to back away, but her body, corrupted by the ethereal energy, remained completely immobile. She could only watch helplessly as Jingjue's hand drew closer and closer to her forehead— Get moving! Get moving!

Xingxian screamed wildly in her heart, trying her best to mobilize even the slightest bit of magic power within her body in an attempt to escape this place.

However, the violent void energy that had invaded her body was not completely eliminated, and everything she did seemed so pale and powerless.

Jingjue's hand ultimately hovered just a few centimeters from her forehead, without touching her, yet it brought an even more chilling sensation.

"Hehe, it's alright," he said with a light laugh, "It's just—to let you get a good night's sleep."

An irresistible drowsiness surged like a tide, frantically eroding Xingxian's consciousness. Her eyelids became incredibly heavy, and the scene before her eyes began to distort and spin, about to be swallowed by bottomless darkness.

She struggled against this influence, but sadly found that everything she did was in vain; no matter how hard she tried, her consciousness continued to fade little by little.

Unwilling to accept it — I'm so unwilling to accept this!

Xingxian let out a silent cry in her heart, the intense regret and resentment burning like flames in her fading consciousness.

In the end, did I still manage to do nothing?

I'm so sorry, Senior Starfrost—I failed to keep my promise to you, and I couldn't bring you back— Also, I'm sorry—Little One— I shouldn't have—I shouldn't have acted so rashly on my own— —I clearly already agreed to become closer friends, and I clearly still want to—hold you one more time— --sorry---- In the end, all the resentment, regret, and sorrow sank into the endless darkness along with that irresistible weariness.

Xingxian's body could no longer support her, and she slumped to one side with a dull thud. Her long, pale purple hair fell onto the cold, mirrored platform, and tears silently slid down from her closed eyes.

Just before her consciousness was about to completely sink into endless darkness, she heard Jingjue's last playful whisper: "However, I can't guarantee—you'll have another chance to wake up~" Meanwhile, outside the mirror maze, on the fifth floor of that dilapidated, unfinished building, in front of the huge floor-to-ceiling mirror that had always stood quietly in the center of the floor.

Suddenly, Ji Ying's expression changed drastically. She abruptly raised her head and looked at the magical mark left by Xing Xian not far away.

Just now, the light of that mark suddenly dimmed, becoming extremely weak, as if it would be completely extinguished at any moment.

Ji Ying's heart sank suddenly, and a strong sense of foreboding instantly swept over her entire body.

—Something's happened!