CHAPTER 74 – THE MIRROR OF PRIDE
Leylin lay buried deep within the planet.The crater that held him was not shallow. It plunged into the earth like a wound carved into the planet's flesh, its walls jagged and fractured from the impact that had driven him through the crust. Loose stones continued to fall from the broken edges, sliding
down the steep slopes before vanishing into the darkness below.Occasionally a rock would strike the depths.The echoes would travel upward.Distant.Hollow.Then silence again.
High above the crater, Crimson Six hovered.Her obsidian armor shimmered faintly beneath the pale sky, the surface rippling like liquid starlight as waves of compressed energy rolled off her body. Wind currents bent around her presence, unable to pass through the invisible pressure fields Surrounding her.
She had not moved for several seconds.Her gaze remained fixed on the crater below.
Waiting.The strike she had delivered moments earlier had been decisive. Enough force to drive Leylin kilometers beneath the surface. Enough power to shatter mountains.Yet…
Her brows slowly furrowed.It had been too quiet.
Crimson Six had fought countless opponents. She knew the difference between death and delay.
This felt like delay.
Her eyes narrowed slightly as she continued staring into the crater.
"Did that end him?" she murmured quietly.
The thought seemed unlikely.
Leylin had survived worse during their exchange already.Still…The silence persisted.
A faint exhale left her lips as she slowly lowered herself a few meters, her body tilting forward slightly.
Perhaps she had misjudged the strike after all.Perhaps the anomaly had finally reached its limit.
She prepared to descend into the crater to confirm it herself.But just as she began moving...Something erupted from the darkness.
The air split open.A blur shot upward from the crater like a cannon round.
Crimson Six barely had time to register the movement before...A fist slammed into her stomach.
The impact detonated in the sky.A shockwave burst outward as the blow connected.
For the first time since the battle had begun...Crimson Six felt something that made her irises contract.
Pain...Not the dull ache of flesh.Her battle armor ensured that such sensations never reached her body in the first place.No.This pain was different.
A pressure deep within the structure of the armor itself.A shock that reverberated through the system protecting her.Air blasted from her lungs as the force carried her backward.
Clouds tore apart as she shot through them, her body streaking across the sky like a meteor. A flock of high-altitude birds scattered in panic as the shockwave ripped through their formation.
She traveled nearly half the horizon before finally stabilizing herself near the edge of the planet's hemisphere.
Her boots scraped across empty air as invisible force vectors forced her momentum to a halt.
For a moment she remained there.Breathing slowly.Then Crimson Six lowered her gaze.
Her eyes drifted to the center of her armor.
To the exact point where the strike had landed.There.. Faint, but unmistakable...An indented fist print had formed in the surface of the armor.
It was shallow.Barely visible.Yet it was there.
Crimson Six stared at it silently.Then she lifted her head and looked toward the figure hovering far in the distance.For a moment she simply stared.And then...She laughed.
The sound erupted from her throat in a loud, unrestrained burst.It echoed through the sky like thunder.It was not anger.It was not rage.It was satisfaction.Curiosity.
Delight.
"Oh…" she breathed between laughs.
"Oh that is wonderful."
Her laughter slowly died down as she studied the figure more carefully.
The being standing in front of her was almost..No,Not almost,It was identical.The same height.The same armor .The same obsidian sheen reflecting the sky.
The same sharp crimson gaze.Leylin hovered in the distance.But not in his usual form.He wore her image.Crimson Six.Perfectly replicated.The resemblance was unsettlingly precise, though something beneath the surface betrayed the difference. A faint predatory stillness lingered within the imitation.
On the center of his breastplate, a golden core rested quietly.The Core of Pride.
Its glow was faint.Dormant.Around it rotated the others.Gluttony.Greed.Envy.
Among them only Gluttony and Envy pulsed faintly with activity.
Crimson Six slowly stopped laughing.Her expression shifted into something calmer.
Sharper.She lifted one hand and pointed directly at him.
"You," she said.
Her voice carried easily across the distance.
"You copied me."
Her lips curved into a thin smile."You think imitation will help you?"
She tilted her head slightly."There's a reason originals exist."
Her eyes gleamed with quiet amusement.
"Imitations can never match the real thing."
The Wrath Core embedded in her chest pulsed once.
A heavy wave of pressure rippled across the atmosphere.
"So let's test that theory."
Her voice lowered slightly.
"I'll show you exactly how wrong you are."
Across from her, Leylin remained completely still.His borrowed armor shimmered faintly beneath the sunlight.For several seconds he did not respond.Then he spoke.His voice was calm.
"Let's see about that."
The sky fell silent.A single breath passed between them.
Neither moved.Then...They vanished.
Two identical figures blurred forward simultaneously, tearing through the air as shockwaves erupted behind them.The distance between them collapsed instantly.
Their fists collided in the center of the sky.And the world shattered again.