Pain wasn't the worst part.
The fall was.
Like being yanked through smoke and shadow. Like her bones didn't know which way was down. Like gravity had given up and decided to break her out of boredom.
And then.....she landed.
Barefoot. In a field of black glass.
The sky above her was cracked porcelain. The stars bled. The moon was upside down.
What… is this?
"Your mind," the Demon King's voice echoed, somewhere behind her, above her, inside her. "Twisted. Buried. Ripe."
She turned. He wasn't there.
But something else was.
A girl stood a few feet away. Same face. Same eyes. Same soft mouth.
Only… younger. Fragile. Dressed in white.
The her from before. Before betrayal. Before fire.
She was smiling.
"You don't belong here," Mirror-Her whispered. "You're not real."
---
"Wrong," she said, stepping forward. "I'm what's left."
Mirror-Her tilted her head. "You're the lie we told to survive. The thing we became when we couldn't take the truth."
"And what's the truth?"
"That we begged them to love us. Even when they hurt us. That we wanted to be saved. Not feared."
Her voice cracked.
"You're not strong. You're just angry."
That hit too close.
But she smiled anyway. Cold. Final.
"You're right."
And then she attacked.
---
Glass shattered beneath her feet as she rushed forward. The other girl screamed....not in pain, but in rage. The whole world shook.
Fire. Screams. Laughter. Trial bells.
Memories slammed into her:
Her father's disgust.
The prince's silence.
The execution pyre.
Why did you trust them? Why did you love them?
The sword appeared in her hand, heavy and black. Forged from regret.
"I didn't come here to talk to ghosts," she growled.
"I came to end you."
---
They fought like mirrors cracking.
Every strike a memory.
Every dodge a denial.
Every wound a truth she didn't want.
And finally she pinned the girl.
Pressed the blade to her throat.
"Please," Mirror-Her whispered. "If you kill me… there's nothing left. No softness. No warmth. You'll be like him."
For a second… she hesitated.
Then...
"Good."
She drove the blade down.
---
Black light exploded.
Not bright. Not holy. Corrupt and divine.
It surged through her veins, up her arms, into her throat. She choked on it. Drowned in it.
When serenya opened her eyes...
She stood alone in the field.
But her dress was gone.
Replaced by obsidian armor laced with crimson veins. Her eyes glowed. Her heartbeat felt like thunder.
The Demon King's voice purred behind her.
"Now that's a Queen."