When Lunaris's body burst apart in Mirror Lake, it wasn't death.
Not really.
His skin shredded first, peeling like wet parchment. Beneath it, veins of fire and water squirmed like rivers seeking their course. His muscles tore away, each fiber dissolving into wind that danced through the water. His bones cracked, but instead of dust, they splintered into glowing shards of wood that drifted outward, orbiting him like broken stars.
For a moment, he was nothing but unmade flesh, a cloud of organs, blood, and bone scattered into the Lake.
Five elements surged into him—fire, water, earth, wind, and wood—forcing themselves into his marrow, his blood, and his soul.
His golden gaze and black hair burned white-grey, misted with the hue of endless skies.
His jagged, uneven teeth knit together, symmetrical and unyielding, strong enough to gnaw through steel.
His bones groaned and snapped back into flawless alignment, his muscles weaving tighter with divine symmetry.
His blood cleared, running purer than crystal streams, his every heartbeat echoing like the toll of a sovereign bell.
His soul pulsed, expanding, flooding every corner of his being until he was no longer merely flesh but a vessel.
Then he exhaled.
The excess energy rippled out from him. The flower beds around the Mirror Lake erupted into bloom, petals unfurling in impossible colors, fragrance thickening the air until it was nearly intoxicating.
Step five: Give
Lunaris Aurelis had awakened.
Not merely as an Awakened but with the power of Sovereign.
***
Now, turning the clock back a few minutes,
While Lunaris wandered deeper into the Gallery, hunting for the canvas that mirrored his "true self," another soul wandered similar endless halls.
Caelrisu.
Her steps echoed softly in the white abyss, but unlike Lunaris, there was no rush in her stride. Curiosity gleamed in her crimson eyes, a spark of hunger not for power, but for knowledge.
In fact, had it not been for Vermas's grave warnings, she might stop the faceless entities she would encounter and will try to strike up a conversation, just to see if they could respond.
So, she just wandered, hands clasped behind her back, head tilting thoughtfully from side to side as her gaze lingered on each massive, empty frame. She had no mood to immediately seek the canvas that reflected "herself."
One by one, she studied them. She etched the faint, strange lines that decorated their borders into her near-perfect memory, her mind automatically analyzing, cataloguing, and comparing.
"Hmm…" She narrowed her eyes, stepping closer to two frames that stood side by side. Their patterns looked identical, subtle swirls carved into pale nothingness, faint etchings that seemed too deliberate to be meaningless.
"…How the fuck are these any different?"
She clicked her tongue, lips curling in irritation. The two canvases stared back with blank indifference, as though mocking her.
"Well, there are millions of test subjects here, and the time dilation is ridiculous anyway." Her lips twisted into a grin, sharp and eager. "I can afford to waste some time. Let's see what secrets you bastards are hiding."
Frame after frame, she moved, eyes devouring detail. Her mind ran at full speed, like a machine fine-tuned for analysis. Each empty surface was dissected, recorded, and cross-compared with the rest.
Hours bled into more hours. Hours into something like days.
And yet,
"FUCK!!!" Her shout cracked the silence, echoing down the infinite halls. She gripped her hair, golden eyes blazing with fury. "I CAN'T MAKE HEAD OR TAILS OF HOW THIS WORKS!!!"
She had studied thousands of canvases already, and still, nothing. No pattern. No formula. There is no rule to predict what created Faceless Entities and what twisted into Nightmares or Hopes.
The emptiness mocked her with its defiance, a puzzle with no pieces, a lock without a key.
"Well…" Caelrisu muttered to herself, voice dry but forced into optimism. "There are still hundreds of thousands left. Yeah, I'll surely decode it. Yeah. For sure."
Her laugh was brittle.
Days passed, or what felt like days. The [Endless Gallery] didn't care for time. Hunger and fatigue didn't bite here, but her mind ached with the weight of her obsession. Every frame she etched into memory only deepened the futility.
"Nothing. NOTHING!" she growled, kicking at the blank marble floor. Her crimson eyes glared at the rows of frames towering over her, each one silent, impassive, as though laughing at her futility.
"Why, why can't these make sense!? How am I supposed to get my revenge!? If I can't even solve this!? If only I had time. Only if I had it."
The Gallery, of course, offered no answer.
Finally, she exhaled, long and sharp. "Tch. Fine." Her hands went to her hips, lips twisting into a wry grin. "I should just go to the great canvas and be done with it."
Her hatred was unshaken, but beneath it, a sliver of unease had begun to creep in.
Unlike Lunaris, who wandered half-blind, Caelrisu had already memorized the Gallery's impossible layout, every branching corridor, every spiral that looped back into itself, and every faint shift in direction that should have been endless yet wasn't.
Now, moving with the precision of a cartographer, she navigated directly toward the center. The Great Canvas.
She stood before it, breath caught in her throat. The white frame pulsed faintly, like a heartbeat. And when it finally reflected her "True Self," something weird happened.
What reflected back was not a slightly small 12-year-old girl with a round face, big crimson eyes, and raven black hair, but instead a woman standing there.
Not just older, alien in her familiarity. Platinum hair cascaded down her shoulders, her eyes were blank white like the blind, and her smile was so sweet it should have been kind…but it twisted, carried on her lips with an unmistakable evil.
A smile that promised to love her. A smile that promised to destroy her. Both at once.
Their gazes met.
CRASH!
The frames around her shattered in unison, exploding like glass struck by a hammer. Faceless entities poured out, hundreds, thousands, slithering from the wreckage, eyeless sockets locked on her with an obscene hunger.
But before even the first could crawl close, her reflection raised a hand.
SNAP.
Every single Faceless Entity burst apart like rotten fruit struck by lightning, their bodies shredded into hundreds of glistening, writhing pieces that bled no blood, only black-and-white static.
Seeing this, horror crept at her heart.
Her "True Self" lowered her hand again with elegance, like an empress dismissing insects. Then, slowly, she tilted her head.
That smile widened.
'Damn…' Caelrisu swallowed hard, her mind running at full speed. 'I must choose my next words carefully, or I'll die right here.'
She forced her trembling voice to sound firm. "Who are you?"
The reflection did not answer. Instead, she hummed softly, a sound like a lullaby sung through broken glass. Then, with a delicate wave of her hand, something began to rise from the shredded corpses of the Faceless Entities.
Essence.
Something like essence, essence different from what Lunaris devoured. This felt like pure light and choking darkness entwined together, pulsing like the brightest day and the blackest night colliding.
Her "True Self" finally spoke. The voice was hers and not hers. Sweet, venomous, loving, cruel.
"Understand it."
And then she smiled wider, too wide, too sharp, a smile that could split the world open.
Caelrisu's head burst apart. Blood and white membrane flying everywhere.