Lord of Mysteries 2: Circle of Inevitability

The endless darkness around seemed frozen, with points of starlight moving through it like liquid flowing through blood vessels in an illusory tunnel, helping Lumian traverse without losing his way.

In just about ten seconds, Lumian arrived at an area where the void was dark and heavy, forming a giant eggshell.

With his arrival, the guiding starlight ahead coalesced into a dreamlike door upon the eggshell.

As soon as Lumian passed through this door, he saw a familiar figure.

It was himself, his male state.

That handsome face was covered in blood stains, and his blue eyes revealed undisguised hatred and pain.

"Well well, having an Angel's help does make a difference!" Lumian's Mirror Person gave a thumbs up, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"If an Angel promises to help and you don't use her power, wouldn't that make you a fool?" Lumian let out his habitual scoff.

Lumian's Mirror Person stared fixedly at his female self, and after a few seconds said, "What are you here for?"

"If you're unwilling, I'll beat you into submission, charm you until you are."

Lumian's Mirror Person gave a self-mocking laugh, then said, "Okay."

"That simple?" Lumian raised an eyebrow that was much softer than his Mirror Person's.

His Mirror Person chuckled. "I'd rather replace you, but that would require your agreement too."

"If there's no other way, that could be considered." Lumian's lips curved into a smile, his face seeming to reflect a hint of starlight.

His Mirror Person froze for a moment and said, "We are essentially the same, the current me."

"The current me?" Lumian was partly concerned his mirror self had other schemes, and partly wanted to explore more knowledge about Mirror People to help Franca with the upcoming ritual, so he didn't rush forward to reconcile.

"After consuming the Witch or higher potions and stabilizing the birth of a Mirror Person, essentially a split of the self occurs during advancement, dividing into the me in the mirror and the me outside the mirror, the me of the original gender and the me of the current gender. When you became a Demoness of Despair, you still had Inevitability's boon, which caused a slight change in the split-the me in the mirror is the me of the original gender, also the past me, while the me outside is the me of the current gender, also the present me." The mirrored Lumian's face showed slight distortion. "This is my personal experience and feeling, it might not be entirely correct."

"If we reconcile, will we together form the future me?" Lumian asked thoughtfully.

"Perhaps." The mirrored Lumian sneered. "Who could have experience with this? Let's hurry up, don't waste time."

Seeing Lumian watching him without speaking, the mirrored Lumian smacked his lips and said, "If I replaced you, the ritual would definitely fall because the soul gender would be different. Then we'd forever remain at the Demoness of Despair sequence unless we switched to War Bishop. That's one path, but given the current situation, it would waste too much time.

"Gal, time waits for no one. Becoming a Demoness of Unaging is a crucial step to reviving Aurore. The sooner we take it, the better!"

Lumian was silent for a few seconds before saying. "You want to reconcile because reviving Aurore is more important?"

"Otherwise? Because of your charming personality?" the mirrored Lumian mocked.

He paused, composed his expression, and said in a deep voice, "We are the same person. Apart from hating you, cursing you, wanting to replace you, I have no other differences from you.

"And none of that matters."

"Indeed, none of that matters." Lumian finally smiled and walked toward his mirror self.

He extended his fair, slender hand with skin like congealed cream.

His mirror self also smiled.

"Since replacing you isn't the most important thing. between reconciliation, being enslaved, and being infatuated with you, I'll definitely choose reconciliation."

As he spoke, he also extended his right palm.

A broad, strong hand with bronze-colored skin.

The two hands, noticeably different in size, clasped together.

Lumian instantly felt the mystical connection between them become almost tangible, as if forming ropes, forming a spider web that enclosed them both.

In his eyes, his mirror self's face suddenly twisted.

The Mirror Person burst out cursing. "Son of a sow! Do you know that every time you use Mirror Substitution, I die once and then split off from you again?

"You piece of shit, let's switch places once, let you experience how painful it is!

"Trapped in this pitch-black place every day, no one to talk to, no one to interact with, I've nearly gone crazy. might as well die, but Aurore hasn't been revived yet!

"Haha, I'm always happy when you're suffering, so you have times like that too!

"Dammit, but I suffer while being happy, because what causes you pain makes me feel pain too, when you're in despair, I'm in despair too!

"Sometimes I think, letting me replace you to face all this. I'd rather die a few more times!

"My little cabbage, why can't you be happier, enjoy more, make me jealous, make me strongly want to replace you?

"…"

Lumian listened to his mirror self's angry curses without suppressing the emotional waves in his heart, as if he too was howling and venting similarly.

The two people in their handshake hadn't moved forward, yet they seemed to be getting closer and closer.

At this point, the mirrored Lumian stopped cursing.

He looked at Lumian, his expression serious, and said in a low voice, "We must revive Aurore."

He paused, then gritted his teeth and shouted. "Otherwise I won't let you off even as a ghost!"

"I won't let myself off either," Lumian responded in a deep voice.

As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly felt his perspective change.

He saw his female self with eyes as clear as a highland lake, features bright and dignified, carrying a peculiar sharpness, and he saw himself with a blood-stained face, expression no longer so twisted.

At this moment, Lumian had an understanding.

Using the help of the Demoness's spider silk, he took out with one hand from the Traveler's Bag the Demoness of Unaging's Beyonder characteristic that resembled a transparent spring eye, different parts of corpses to replace Mirror God fragments and Gorgon blood, drops of water from drowned people's lungs collected over these two days, and an antique mirror from the early Fifth Epoch.

Under the guidance of invisible spider silk, first the slightly yellow-tinted blood was poured into a glass cup, a full 80 milliliters, then the spring-like crystal, glass shard-like objects, blackened drops with pus, and the copper mirror with damaged decorations around its edges were successively placed into that cup of blood.

In an instant, the glass cup took on a grayish-white color, and all items inside quickly merged, gradually becoming illusory.

Soon, a glass of grayish-white liquid that clearly reflected the surrounding mirror world appeared before Lumian's eyes.

The "Unaging" potion!

Lumian, simultaneously having two perspectives, raised his left hand and brought the transparent grayish-white cup to his lips, drinking the potion inside.

He first tasted a mixture of soil and stone, then hist senses were numbed.

Wherever the potion passed, his tongue, mouth, esophagus, and stomach lost sensation, turning grayish-white.

This grayish-white was still seeping into his soul.

At this moment, Lumian felt his spirit float into the air, arriving at his mirror self's side, watching as his Demoness form gradually turned to stone, seemingly becoming a statue.

His mirror self also underwent corresponding changes, just much more slowly, much more gradually.

Lumian's spirit quickly descended, using his mirror self to maintain consciousness and avoid complete petrification.

He suddenly understood why the Demoness of Unaging's ritual involved enslaving one's Mirror Person, or making him infatuated, or reconciling with him, because otherwise, after taking the potion, as the body petrified and the spirit wandered toward the mirror self, it would meet the Mirror Person's strong resistance, and at this time one's strength could only be exerted to a limited degree, making the situation very precarious.

When the Mirror Person was also severely petrified, Lumian's spirit floated up again, returning to his body.

By now, his body had adapted to the potion and, under returning consciousness's drive, gradually shed its petrified state.

Then, he saw his mirror self changing, transforming toward femininity, and not far away, one after another version of himself emerged from the darkness-him when he had just become a Demoness of Despair, him when he was still an Pyromaniac, him when he had just arrived at Cordu Village, him when he was still wandering, him in childhood...

Every time he looked in a mirror, it left certain traces in the mirror world, and now they all appeared!

You can choose one of these selves, fixing that state...

This is the secret of how the Demoness of Unaging can restore youth...

No matter which state is chosen, it will inevitably feminize...

My mirror self has actually become a woman too... Is this because I chose reconciliation rather than enslavement or making him infatuated?

So it can work like this...

Lumian, still gradually relieving his petrified state.

watched as his mirror self became increasingly beautiful, becoming more and more like himself, but vaguely carrying some of Aurore's qualities.

Just as feelings of joy began to arise, a scene suddenly appeared before his eyes:

in endless darkness, an indistinct figure suddenly turned toward this direction.

In just the blink of an eye, this figure arrived at the edge of that darkness, quietly looking down at Lumian.

This was similar to the Primordial Demoness's gaze when Lumian advanced to Demoness of Despair, but somewhat different.

Under this gaze, Lumian instantly lost most sensation, left with only a hazy consciousness struggling not to sink.

Shortly after, he opened his eyes to find himself wrapped in layers of grayish-white spider webs, like prey stored by a spider, or like a newborn in an egg.

The next second, the spider web silently collapsed. falling to the ground. Lumian's ordinary clothes, weakened by the earlier petrification and current recovery, quickly turned to powder and drifted away. revealing lustrous, delicate white skin.

While taking out and changing into clothes from the Traveler's Bag, Lumian looked around.

He then saw his Demoness-state mirror self.

He smiled, and that Mirror Person smiled too.

They were no longer separate-Lumian was both the self outside the mirror and the self inside the mirror, both the past self and the present self.

This was a Demoness of Unaging.