Entering deeper into the cave, Yuki's magic began to work again, however Yamato's remained completely blocked. Possibly because hers was just stronger, or maybe because Yamato was not as familiar with it yet. Either way, Yuki cast a flame onto her finger tip which lit the dark, cold walls, now revealed to be artificially built, apparent by the smoothness of the rock, forming a relatively perfect square shaped hallway.
"What do you think of the creature, Master?"
"I found it fascinating… I've never seen anything like it…"
"I found it pretty too at first. But that roar is unbearable… And overall it's kinda gross."
"Well, either way we shouldn't confront it again without a plan. But besides that, I wonder what this place is. It reminds me a little of where we found the prophecy."
"But there are no letters on the walls. Maybe it's like a pre-chamber?"
"Maybe the cave where we found the prophecy had this too… We entered through a wall after all, and not through an official entrance."
"Could be! But that would mean we missed a lot back then, and maybe only scratched the surface of what was waiting there to be discovered by us! There could have been unthinkable amounts of treasure, like a princess crown!"
"If this cave is connected to the prophecy cave at all, that is… And why do you want the crown of a princess? I'd say an angel is above a princess in any way."
"Aww, really? You're so sweet… But it'd still look super cuge on me and totally seduce you. Ah, this is so exciting though! We are on an expedition in ancient ruins as a couple, isn't it awesome!?"
"Right, like an epic and romantic adventure…"
"That's what I'm saying! Our grandkids will be talking about this still!"
"I don't think it will be that big of a deal."
"To me it will be!"
After a couple of minutes they reached a narrow spiral staircase leading down even further, with gaps in between steps most likely caused by erosion. However jumping over them was no problem for the two and they eventually reached the bottom of the staircase which led into a massive hall. It seemed empty as Yuki lit flames across the hall, with but a single full-length mirror standing in the center. It looked like any other mirror, with nothing remarkable about it besides some engravings on the frame. They pictured a person with stars in the background. Upon closer inspection, the supposed mirror had no reflection at all, even though its surface seemed clean, it was pitch black at the same time. Yamato brushed over it trying to wipe away whatever it was, but even after that nothing was being reflected no matter from which angle he looked at it.
"What an odd thing…"
"Maybe we should break it!"
"Why is that your first thought…"
"Because maybe something will happen then! It seems useless otherwise."
"I guess… It seems fascinating regardless though…"
"Booo!"
"Whatever, go ahead."
"Yay~"
She immediately shot a projectile out of light at the mirror's surface, thinking surely it would be enough to shatter it into pieces. However it was instead reflected, hitting her in the stomach and throwing her away a couple of meters onto the ground.
"Urgh… Is everything magic resistant now?! Enough of this!"
She summoned a golden sword and charged towards it again, slashing it but being thrown back once more, even further this time.
"…Argh! Fuck you, you stupid mirror!"
She rammed it with her shoulder, and was bounced off again, though she caught herself this time and used the momentum to punch it full force with her bare fist. To both her and Yamato's surprise, she was not thrown away this time. Instead, the mirror responded as its surface seemed to turn liquid and reflected Yuki now. However it was not an actual reflection, as she looked quite different in the mirror. Her white hair was black, her blue eyes were red, and it wore her original clothes instead of the school uniform, but even that was black instead of white. At least her chest size stayed the same, she thought, as she tilted her head, studying her reflection.
"Hmm… Yup, still gorgeous~ What do you think Master? Should I dye my hair black? Then we'd be matching~"
"I like your hair as it is…"
"Aww, I love you too!"
"But I wonder what made it react this time… Did you do anything special?"
"Nothing except what you saw me do!"
Yamato stood next to her now, though he was not reflected by it at all. Then suddenly a crack formed, small at first but spreading across its entire surface only moments later.
"Uh… Are you sure you did nothing else?"
"Nothing!"
"Then we might want to back-"
The mirror suddenly shattered into pieces which flew towards them, but just in front of them all the pieces froze mid air. What previously had been pitch black was now shining so bright that Yamato could not see a thing, the whole hall being lit up as if they were not underground. It quickly went dark again though, the flash of light only lasting for mere seconds. Though it was far from over as he now barely caught a glimpse of Yuki being grabbed and thrown into a wall. Of course she did not just let herself be treated like that and created a small shockwave around her which threw her attacker off. Said attacker was… Herself?
"What the… What is your problem!?"
The copy of Yuki with opposite features, which she had previously seen in the reflection, flew towards her again, feathery wings as black as her dress swiftly carrying her through the air. She summoned a sword with a black hilt and red blade, identical to the one Yuki used a while ago against the Hero they fought at the prison.
"You ruined the moment, you stupid bitch!"
Yuki yelled as she drew her own sword, and charged at her copy. As their swords clashed, Yuki's copy only held her sword with one hand and grabbed onto Yuki's throat with the other, which Yuki used to overpower her copy and disarm her, seemingly unaffected by being grabbed by the throat. Yuki then attacked her copy with her sword, but was interrupted by the sword of the copy flying back at her which she had to block. Feeling as though she was getting overwhelmed, Yuki threw her sword against her copy's, head butted her and punched her in the stomach, then pulled on her hair and threw her copy into the ground before stomping in her face. She took a deep breath thinking she was unconscious.
"Uhg… So violent… I'd never~ Master, where are you?"
As she looked around for Yamato, she was surprised by the copy attacking again. She flew up to thrust Yuki into the air, and Yuki was thrown into the ceiling which shook the whole cave.
"Hold on just a bit more, Yuki!"
The copy stayed silent as she continued to attack Yuki, but turned towards Yamato's voice. Just then, Yuki charged out of the hole left in the ceiling and pulled on her copy's hair, pulling her onto the ground once more and getting on her back trying to pin her down completely. She grabbed onto her copy's head and punched it into the ground repeatedly before snapping it around in a 180° angle, breaking her copy's neck.
"Phew… That's what you get…"
However, it was still not over yet. Her copy's head snapped right back in and she threw Yuki off as she flew up, shooting an energy beam at Yuki which she countered with one of her own. Their combined power eventually resulting in both being thrown away from each other. Yuki hitting the ground hard, and her copy flying right into the mirror, creating a small cut on her arm because of the glass shards she passed through along the way. Just as she pulled herself up, Yuki's foot already landed in her face as the copy was forced into the mirror again. The mirror moved noticeably little despite the force with which Yuki threw her copy against it, having moved about an inch backwards in total after all hits dealt to it. As Yuki now had her copy at her mercy again, she shot another energy beam at close range. However she seemed to have forgotten the strange properties of the mirror, as a simple wiggle to the right dodged Yuki's attack and reflected it back at her again. However not just that, the beam was split into seven due to the angle it hit the mirror at, spreading into different directions and hitting the walls around them, making it crumble even more. In addition to that, the copy's sword caught up to Yuki and barely scratched her cheek, which was unforgivable because it was the first thing to actually damage her in this fight. Yuki then caught the sword by the blade and shattered it to pieces, staring at the copy who with growing irritation. The copy seemed to be just staring as well, before Yuki's eyes slightly widened in surprise. Yamato, moving undetected due to his still blocked magic, snuck up behind the copy, and slit her throat with a mirror shard grabbed out of the air. Her body twitched and squirmed before going limp and dropping to the ground. As she hit the cold, hard stone floor in front of him, a pool of blood started quickly forming on the ground. Yuki looked at her motionless lookalike, being unbothered by seeing herself killed. After waiting for a moment to see if she would regenerate again, she looked at him, only him. He looked down at the corpse for a brief moment as well, before looking at her, only her.
"Great job, Yuki. Thanks to your distraction I was able to take her out."
"Yeah… But why doesn't she just regenerate again?"
As she asked, the body withered away into dust that slowly flew back into the mirror again.
"Beats me. But the scratches on her arm didn't disappear either, and those were inflicted by shards of the mirror. So I figured that'd be our best bet, seeing as your attacks had little effect on her."
"They were pretty effective, but whatever… That was a pretty dangerous move you just pulled, Master. Next time, you have to ask before doing something risky by yourself like that! And not just ask, but wait for my response too!"
"I'll see what I can do…"
"Promise!"
"Seriously?"
"Promise you will never do anything without my knowledge ever again!"
"I'm not going to do that… But if it eases your mind, I won't do anything reckless without warning you first, promised."
"That's right~"