The obsidian shard, still pulsing with a cold, dark light, felt like a brand seared into Kairo's left palm. It was a twin to the silver mark of Pride on his right, but its presence was different. Pride had been a burning arrogance, a whisper of superiority. Envy was a chilling emptiness, a profound sense of lack.
He knelt on the shattered remnants of Syne's throne, gasping, sweat plastering strands of dark hair to his temples. Blood still trickled from his nose, a testament to the mental strain of battling Syne and her domain. The colossal mirror, the Heart of Reflection, behind him was now a dull, opaque surface, reflecting nothing. The vibrant, shimmering city of glass had faded, its impossible angles and recursive spirals muted, as if the very essence of Envy had been drained from its core.
Yet, the silence that followed Syne's destruction was not peace. It was a vacuum, a space for new whispers to fill.
[S.I.N. FRAGMENT: ENVY // INTEGRATION COMPLETE]
[CORRUPTION LEVEL: 18%]
[STATUS EFFECT: ECHO WHISPER // MODERATE]
[STATUS EFFECT: IDENTITY FLUX // MINOR]
The new status effect, Identity Flux, sent a shiver down his spine. It felt like his own features were subtly shifting, his skin crawling, as if his very form was trying to decide who it should be. The voices in his head, once distinct, now intertwined. Pride's arrogant murmur, "You are better. You are flawless," was now laced with Envy's insidious suggestion, "But you could be more flawless. You could be anyone."
He pushed himself up, his limbs heavy, his mind a chaotic battlefield. He had defeated Syne, but the victory felt hollow, tainted. He hadn't just taken her Fragment; he had absorbed a piece of her essence, a sliver of the Sin itself.
"You could be anyone. You could be everyone. Why be just yourself?" The Envy whisper was smooth, seductive, offering a terrifying escape from the burden of his own fractured identity. It promised release from memory, from pain, from the relentless pursuit of the System.
He stumbled out of the shattered throne room, the muted glass city stretching before him like a mausoleum of forgotten selves. The hundreds of reflections that had formed Loop 4's army were still frozen, but without Syne's active manipulation, they seemed less menacing, more like static figures in a grim tableau. Yet, he could still feel their presence, a thousand eyes silently judging him, comparing him to their own failed existences.
His gaze fell upon one particular reflection – a Kairo curled in a corner, weeping silently, his face etched with profound despair. A wave of empathy, sharp and unexpected, washed over him. That could have been me. That is me, in another life. The Envy Fragment pulsed, urging him to look away, to dismiss the weakness, to seek a stronger, more perfect reflection. But the lingering humanity in him recoiled.
He needed to understand this new corruption, to master the ECHO//MIMIC skill before it mastered him. The System had granted it, but the Envy Fragment had twisted its purpose. Temporarily mimic the appearance and surface-level abilities of a targeted Echo. It was a tool of transformation, a direct manifestation of Envy's desire to become another.
He found a secluded alcove, a small, enclosed space where the mirrored walls were less dense. He closed his eyes, focusing inward, trying to grasp the new skill. It felt like a loose thread in his mind, something he could pull, but didn't know where it led.
He opened his eyes. In the mirrored wall before him, he saw a reflection of himself. He focused on it, picturing a subtle change – a different hairstyle, a scar he didn't possess.
[SKILL ACTIVATION: ECHO//MIMIC - LV.1]
[TARGET: SELF-REFLECTION (MINOR)]
[COST: VOIDPOINT -1]
A strange sensation rippled through his body. His skin tingled, his muscles subtly shifted. He looked at his reflection again. His hair was indeed shorter, swept back from his forehead, and a faint, thin scar now bisected his right eyebrow. It was a minor change, almost imperceptible, but it was not him.
He focused again, trying to revert. The skill was still active, a faint hum in his mind. He willed his original appearance back.
[ECHO//MIMIC // EFFECT: REVERT (MINOR)]
[COST: VOIDPOINT -1]
His features blurred, then snapped back to normal. The phantom scar vanished. The cost was immediate, a double drain on his VoidPoints for a trivial change. This wasn't a simple disguise. This was a temporary becoming. And it was terrifyingly easy.
"Imagine what you could do," the Envy whisper purred. "Become the strongest. Become the one who never failed. Become a god."
He knew, with a chilling certainty, that the true danger of this skill wasn't its VoidPoint cost, but its psychological toll. Each mimicry, each temporary adoption of another identity, would erode his own, making it harder to remember who Kairo Vale truly was. This was Syne's final, insidious gift.
He needed to get out of this domain. The longer he stayed, the more he risked being consumed by the very Sin he was meant to collect.
He began to walk again, the silence of the city broken only by his own footsteps and the incessant whispers in his head. The Pride Fragment urged him forward with cold arrogance, while the Envy Fragment tempted him with the allure of becoming someone else, someone better.
As he navigated the labyrinthine glass corridors, the environment began to subtly shift around him. The muted reflections started to regain their vibrancy, but with a new, unsettling quality. They weren't just reflecting the city; they were reflecting him, but with a thousand different, subtle changes. A Kairo with a golden eye. A Kairo with a cruel, satisfied smile. A Kairo with chains wrapped around his neck.
The city was adapting. Even without Syne, the Sin of Envy was a pervasive, self-sustaining force.
He felt a new presence then, not an Echo, not a Witch. Something else. It was a cold, calculating gaze, like a predator observing its prey. It wasn't the "something older, something patient" he'd felt after the Shade. This was closer, more direct.
He stopped, his senses screaming. The air grew heavy, thick with a metallic tang that made his teeth ache. He looked around, but saw nothing but the endless, shifting reflections of himself.
Then, a voice. Not a whisper, not a scream, but a dry, rasping sound, like sand sifting through bone. It came from everywhere and nowhere, resonating from the very glass around him.
"So the new toy has arrived."
Kairo spun, his hand instinctively going to the Pride Fragment, readying a skill.
A figure shimmered into existence directly in front of him, coalescing from the mirrored walls. It was tall, impossibly thin, draped in robes woven from what looked like dried, flayed skin. Its head was a polished, featureless orb of black glass, reflecting Kairo's terrified face back at him. It had no mouth, no eyes, yet he felt its gaze pierce him.
[ENTITY IDENTIFIED: SIN ARCHBISHOP – ENVY // DESIGNATION: XYLOS]
[WARNING: LEVEL UNKNOWN // SYSTEM UNSTABLE]
Xylos. The Envy Archbishop.
Unlike Lucen, who had been a corrupted priest, Xylos was pure, unadulterated void. His presence was a chilling absence, a black hole of identity.
"Syne was… inefficient," Xylos rasped, the sound vibrating through Kairo's bones. "She played with reflections. I am reflection."
He raised a hand. His fingers, long and skeletal, ended in needle-sharp tips that seemed to absorb the light around them.
"You carry a piece of her now," Xylos continued, his voice devoid of emotion, yet filled with a profound, terrifying envy. "A piece of my domain. And you are… imperfect."
Kairo didn't wait. He launched himself forward, activating Trace//Force, aiming for a swift, decisive strike. He wouldn't let this one play mind games.
But Xylos didn't move. He simply shifted. His form rippled, becoming a perfect, inverse reflection of Kairo's charging body. Kairo's fist passed through him as if he were air, the momentum carrying him forward into empty space.
He slammed into the mirrored wall behind Xylos, pain lancing through his shoulder. The glass didn't break. It absorbed him, pulling at his form, trying to stretch him into a distorted, permanent reflection.
[SKILL: TRACE//FORCE // EFFECT: NULLIFIED]
[WARNING: DOMAIN // ENVY // ARCHBISHOP ABILITY: PERFECT COUNTER]
Kairo struggled, his muscles screaming as the wall tried to consume him. He could feel his own image being stretched, flattened. The whispers in his head intensified, a chorus of despair. "You are nothing. You are a copy. You are erased."
Xylos turned slowly, his featureless head tilting. "You cannot fight what you are. You cannot fight what is."
He extended his skeletal hand towards Kairo, his movements precise, deliberate. "You are an echo, Kairo. A glitch. And I will make you perfect. I will make you nothing."
Kairo fought back against the wall, his mind screaming. He couldn't use Shatter//Truth while being absorbed. He couldn't use Ghost//Thread against a being that seemed to be the domain itself. He was trapped, his own reflection his prison.
The black glass fingers neared his face, cold and absolute. He saw his own terrified eyes reflected in Xylos's featureless head, a perfect image of despair.
No, he thought, a desperate, defiant spark igniting in his core. I am Kairo Vale. I am not a reflection. I am not nothing.
He activated ECHO//MIMIC.
[SKILL ACTIVATION: ECHO//MIMIC - LV.1]
[TARGET: SIN ARCHBISHOP – ENVY // XYLOS]
[WARNING: UNSTABLE TARGET // HIGH CORRUPTION RISK]
[COST: VOIDPOINT -5]
The cost was astronomical, a searing drain that left him dizzy and weak. But it worked.
His body convulsed. His skin rippled. His features blurred, shifting, trying to mimic the featureless, black-glass orb of Xylos's head. For a terrifying second, he felt his own identity dissolve, his consciousness expanding, trying to encompass the cold, empty perfection of the Archbishop. He was becoming Xylos.
Xylos paused, his hand inches from Kairo's face. A flicker of something akin to surprise, or perhaps a glitch, passed across his featureless head.
He's trying to become me, Kairo realized, a chilling thought. He's trying to reflect me back. But I'm reflecting him first.
The mimicry was imperfect, unstable. Kairo's form shimmered, half-himself, half-Xylos. But it was enough. The Archbishop's perfect reflection, his absolute counter, had been momentarily disrupted by a reflection of himself.
Xylos shrieked, a soundless scream of pure, existential agony that vibrated through the entire mirrored city. His form rippled violently, losing its cohesion, unable to perfectly reflect Kairo's corrupted mimicry. He recoiled, clutching his own featureless head, as if Kairo's attempt to become him was a violation of his very being.
Kairo, still half-absorbed by the wall, seized the opportunity. He pushed with every ounce of his will, his own identity screaming against the pull of the glass. The mimicry broke, his own form snapping back into place, leaving him weak and shaking, but free.
Xylos, still convulsing, began to dissolve. Not into static, but into a swirling vortex of black glass shards that imploded inward, like a mirror devouring itself.
[ENTITY PURGED // ARCHBISHOP CONSUMED]
[VOIDPOINT +3 EARNED]
[CORRUPTION SPIKE: 25%]
The city went silent. The reflections, once menacing, now seemed to simply stare blankly. Kairo collapsed to the ground, panting, his entire body screaming in protest. The Envy Fragment pulsed wildly in his palm, its whispers a chaotic symphony of inadequacy and the terrifying allure of becoming anyone else.
He looked at his reflection in a small, unbroken shard of glass on the floor. His eyes were wide, and for a fleeting moment, he saw not his own features, but a glimpse of Xylos's featureless black orb, then a flash of Loop 4's cruel smirk, then the weeping eyes of another Echo. His face was a canvas of stolen identities, constantly shifting, trying to settle.
"You are everyone," the Envy whisper purred, louder now, almost a promise. "You are nothing."
Kairo closed his eyes, clutching his head. He had survived. He had defeated an Archbishop. But the cost was immense. His identity was a battleground, and the lines were blurring faster than ever. He was becoming the very thing he fought.
He had to find the true Lira. He had to find a way out of this prison of reflections before he became just another one.