The world cracked open beneath us.
Light surged through the stone like veins of molten glass, ripping apart the courtyard. The fortress shook as if something vast and breathing had woken beneath its foundations.
"Move!" Ya Zhen's voice cut through the roar.
Ji Ming caught my arm just as the floor split apart, pulling me back before a fissure swallowed the edge of my robe. The air reeked of ozone and burnt metal… qi distortion thick enough to taste.
Beneath us, the light took shape… not fire, not magic, but a reflection.
It was as if the earth itself had turned to glass, and within that glass something watched us back.
We ran through the outer corridor, Ya Zhen leading the way. Guards shouted behind us; some were crushed beneath falling stone, others vanished into the blinding glow.
"What is it?" Ji Ming shouted.
"The Forge," Ya Zhen replied, voice hoarse. "The first prototype. The Emperor wasn't forging weapons, he was growing them."
We burst into the lower hall, the same place we'd seen the blueprints. The lamps had gone out. Only the light from below remained, pulsing, like a heartbeat, through the cracks in the floor.
I could see it now, a lattice of runes burned into the earth, all feeding toward a center point. And in that center, suspended like a mirror made of living crystal, was something moving.
A figure.
Or the outline of one.
Its surface rippled like a combination of water and glass, shifting between shapes, sometimes human, sometimes monstrous. Its voice came in fragments: echoes of laughter, whispers, screams.
Ji Ming drew his sabers, both glowing faint silver from the resonance. "It's alive."
"It's unfinished," Ya Zhen said. "The Emperor's men were experimenting with divine cores, but they didn't know what they summoned."
As if to answer, the mirrored figure moved. Its arm stretched, long and fluid, and slammed against the ground, shattering half the chamber wall. The energy surged outward, flinging me across the room.
Ji Ming was already there before I hit the floor. His arms caught me, the impact knocking the air from both of us. His heartbeat thundered through my back.
"Stay with me," he said, not an order, but a plea.
The resonance between us flared, bright and wild. Silver threads coiled around our bodies, tracing veins of light through the dust. I felt his qi wrap around mine like a shield, raw, protective, and desperate.
"Ji Ming—"
"Don't speak," he said, gripping my hand. "Focus. Match my breath."
The Mirror Forge bellowed. Its body fragmented, shards breaking off and levitating in the air, each one glowing with the distorted faces of the soldiers, monks, and civilians; all twisted versions of the souls it had consumed.
"We can't fight that," I said, bewilderedly.
"Then we'll just have to unmake it," Ji Ming replied.
He moved first, stepping forward until the glow of the mirror reflected his silhouette. The light bent around him, distorting his face, half his features turned into reflections of mine.
The sight hurt in a way I couldn't name.
I followed. Our qi threads linked, pulsing faster and brighter. The resonance surged outward, forming a bridge of light between us and the Mirror's core.
I heard Ya Zhen shout something, but her voice was distant, drowned by the roar of energy.
When we struck, it wasn't a blow, but a collapse. Our combined qi folded inward, meeting the Mirror's unstable current, silver and crimson clashing against glass and shadow.
The sound was deafening, like eternity itself was shattering.
The last thing I saw before the world went white was Ji Ming reaching for me, his face torn between fear and something gentler.
Silence.
When I awoke, the fortress was gone. Only a crater remained, still steaming under the moonlight. The air hummed faintly, shards of mirrored crystal floating in the mist like falling stars.
"Ji Ming?"
I found him kneeling at the edge of the crater, one hand pressed to his chest. The silver mark of the bond burned faintly beneath his collarbone.
"You're alive," I breathed.
He smiled weakly. "So are you. Barely."
"What happened?"
"The Forge broke," he said. "But it took something from us."
I followed his gaze to the center of the crater. The crystal fragments were merging, forming again, slowly, pulsing with faint red light.
Ya Zhen's voice came from behind us, quiet and grim. "It's not destroyed. It's awakening. And now… it knows your names."