The monster didn't attack right away.
It just stood there.
No—reflected there.
Across the street, in the tinted glass of a parked SUV, it watched us. But when I looked directly, there was nothing—just a clean car and a curbside tree.
But in the reflection, it grinned.
Too wide. Too long.
---
> [ENTITY DETECTED – MIRROR TYPE: "GLIMWRAITH"]
[Threat Level: C]
[Known Traits: Illusion-class. Possesses reflective mediums. Capable of Refracted Movement.]
[Note: Direct attacks ineffective unless reflection anchor is destroyed.]
Lena stood beside me, chewing on a toothpick like this was casual.
"Glimwraiths are tricky," she muttered. "Think funhouse mirror. Only the fun part wants to wear your skin."
"What do we do?"
She grinned.
"We make it bleed in its own reflection."
---
We skipped the rest of school. Obviously.
By nightfall, we'd tracked the Glimwraith's movement across three intersections and two sets of security footage. It never showed up on camera. Only in windows, puddles, phone screens, rearview mirrors.
It was watching us. Testing us.
> [New Objective: Eliminate Glimwraith Before Midnight.]
[Reward: Skill Point + Arsenal Expansion + ???]
[Penalty: Mirror Claim Will Begin – Local Threat Level Upgrade Imminent.]
Lena leaned against a lamppost outside a condemned office building, the last place we'd seen the thing shimmer in a busted vending machine's glass.
"I've got suppression codes," she said, holding up her wrist. A black digital sigil pulsed there, etched under the skin. "They let me 'mute' a small space from reflection. For ten seconds."
"After that?"
"It gets loud."
---
We went in quiet.
The building was three floors of peeling paint, broken desks, shattered screens, and mirror shards.
The air was cold. Not in a weather way. In a wrong way. Like time had stopped acknowledging this place.
> [Judgment Glare – Ready]
[MP: 62/70]
[Arsenal Equipped: NULLBLADE (Lv. 1)]
I held the blade low. Lena's fingers twitched, scrolling invisible code between them like a hacker playing piano.
Then the ceiling lights flickered.
The hallway shifted.
A dozen versions of us stood in every reflective surface.
Some were late. Some were early. One of them was me—but smiling with too many teeth.
> [MIRROR REALM BREACH: 87%]
[TARGET ENGAGED – GLIMWRAITH INITIATES "MIRROR CLONE"]
Lena snapped her fingers.
The world snapped back.
Ten seconds. That was all we had.
"MOVE!" she shouted.
---
I dashed forward. Judgement Glare activated.
The reflections cracked like spiderwebs.
The real Glimwraith screamed from the vending machine glass, its body a shimmering mesh of limbs, angles, and blinking mouths.
> [Anchor Located: REFLECTION CORE – 2nd Floor Restroom Mirror]
"Upstairs!" I yelled, veering off.
Lena stayed below, throwing suppression code into anything reflective—phones, glass shards, even her own eyes.
I reached the restroom.
The mirror was pulsing—liquid silver rippling like it wanted to burst.
I didn't hesitate. I plunged Nullblade straight into it.
> [REFLECTION CORE SHATTERED]
[GLIMWRAITH VULNERABLE – STATUS: UNPHASED]
[EXECUTE STRIKE TO TERMINATE.]
The whole building screamed.
Not a sound. A feeling. Like rage and grief made physical.
The Glimwraith burst through the wall, distorted and flickering. It lunged—
But I was ready.
I spun and sliced it clean across the core, the weapon humming with System resonance.
The monster shattered into a thousand fragments of light and noise.
And then—silence.
> [Target Eliminated.]
[EXP +90 | Skill Point +1 | Arsenal Expansion Unlocked]
[REWARD ACQUIRED: MIRROR TRACE (Passive)]
[System Note: Your reflection is now marked.]
---
I stumbled back outside, panting. Lena stood waiting, brushing glass dust from her hoodie.
"You didn't die," she said. "Nice."
"You could've helped."
She shrugged. "I'm support. I suppress. You stab."
I rolled my eyes.
> [New Ally Skill Unlocked – Tactical Sync Lv. 2: Shared Threat Feed Enabled.]
[System Note: Veilbond Sync Rate at 9%]
Whatever that meant, I didn't know yet.
But as we left the dead building behind, Lena turned to me, serious now.
"That was a baby," she said. "Glimwraiths? Bottom of the food chain."
"So what's at the top?"
She looked up at the fractured sky.
"I don't think it's on Earth anymore."