SWNOVELXO Chapter 22: Chapter 17
CHAPTER 17: THE KNIFE AND THE MIRROR
...
Mirrors Cracking (Rei vs Lust)
The Cradle's core chamber glimmered like a dream.
Or a nightmare.
A thousand veins of golden light pulsed beneath the glass catwalks, feeding into the great central sphere where Luther had been made or born. Now it shimmered weakly, its divine circuits fighting against the corruption seeping into its arteries.
At the edge of the sphere stood Lust, her hand pressed to the interface.
Black energy coiled from her fingertips into the crystal, like ink bleeding through water.
"You should stop," Rei's voice cut through the silence.
Lust didn't even flinch.
He stepped into view from the shadowed staircase, his coat still fluttering faintly behind him. His eyes glimmered silver in the Cradle's light. His hands stayed loose at his sides... but every muscle in him was taut.
"You should stop," he repeated. "Or I'll stop you."
Lust's reflection in the glass smiled faintly, though her real face remained still.
"I wondered when you'd come, Rei," she said. "You always do. Like a stray thought that won't die."
He walked closer, boots clinking softly against the glass.
"Don't pretend this wasn't sloppy," he said. "The Choir's fingerprints are all over it.... And you left enough noise for even me to hear them singing."
Her reflection laughed.. the sound faintly fractured, as though coming from somewhere deeper in the mirrors.
"I think you forget, child. The Choir's song was written long before you were even imagined."
"And still," Rei said coldly, "I'm here to silence it, funny isn't."
For the first time, Lust turned to face him fully.
Her mirrored skin rippled faintly, black sigils crawling faintly across her arms.
"You think you can stop me?" she asked.
"No," Rei replied. And drew his blade.
"But I can cut deep enough to make you think twice."
Lust struck first.. black tendrils lashing from her hands, cracking the glass beneath them. Rei ducked, slashed, pivoted... his blade carving through the air in clean, disciplined arcs.
The fight became a dance among the Cradle's catwalks.
Glass splintered. Sparks flared. Their reflections shattered and multiplied in the mirrors above and below them... two shadows locked in a duel of whispers and steel.
At last, Rei's blade flashed through the last black tendril, knocking the sigil from her hand.
It clattered across the glass floor, faintly pulsing.
Lust hissed softly and faded into the dark, her form melting into the shadows beyond the Cradle's edge.
But she left her sigil behind.
Rei crouched, picked it up, and studied it.
Already his mind was pulling it apart, turning it over, analyzing it.
"What are you up to lust," he murmured into the empty air.
And slid the sigil into his coat.
...
The Rampage Ends (Luther's Collapse)
Above, Eden burned.
Whole streets lay flattened... black ash and golden flame mingling as screams echoed through the air.
Luther moved through the carnage like a living storm.
His divine energy flared wild and unstable, golden veins cracking his skin as his eyes burned with something unrecognizable. He tore through the last ranks of soldiers, ripping the Geki class Akuma in half even as its illusions clawed at his mind.
In his eyes, they still burned... Naomi's death, his squad's screams, all the blood of the ones he couldn't save. With Naomi's words lingering in his ears...
"You were made to end him...."
He roared, and the ground split beneath his feet.
Across the street, Seraph knelt, wings spread. Its pale blade gleamed as it rose again... Zero's prototype, half-divine, flawless, unshaking. Replicating all his divine abilities.
Seraph struck.
And Luther caught its blade.
The impact shattered the air, sending a shockwave through the entire sector. Windows blew out, towers cracked. Even Genna and her soldiers were forced back as the two figures clashed, blow after blow, god against god.
Finally, at the height of the storm, Luther's scream split the sky... his divine energy flaring so violently it blinded everyone within sight.
Then, silence.
He collapsed to his knees, golden veins still sparking as his eyes dimmed. Soldiers rushed forward, binding him in golden lattice chains as his head finally bowed.
Genna stood over him, flames licking her shoulders.
''Genna.... Genna report to me, how's the situation out there.'' said Zero through the comms.
She muttered under her breath, bitterly.
"Luther is successfully neutralized, but that wasn't a man," she said. "That was a god… trying to remember what he is."
...
Mr. P Plays On
Deep below, Mr. P sat in his lab.
The monitors showed everything... Luther collapsing, the soldiers dragging him away, the Prototype returning to its pod.
On another screen, a single line of data pulsed.
Elian's signal: 6%.
Mr. P smirked faintly to himself, leaning back in his chair.
"Break as much as you want, kid," he murmured. "The pieces are still mine."
Behind him, Clone 3 appeared in the doorway, white mask gleaming faintly.
"Lust failed," the clone said flatly.
Mr. P didn't even turn.
"Of course she did," he said. "That wasn't her real move. The Choir never sings their last verse first."
Clone 3 tilted his head.
"She couldn't corrupt the Ascension Circuit."
"And?" Mr. P chuckled, finally swiveling to face him. "Do you think I expected her to? Please. Zero's paranoid, but he's not perfect. All Lust did was crack the glass. That's all I needed."
Clone 3 stayed quiet.
Mr. P waved him off lazily, pulling up another terminal window.
"Stay hidden," he instructed. "Keep the Choir busy. The people are panicking after what they saw... let them panic. Feed them just enough rebellion to keep them warm. But don't show your hand yet. Not until I tell you."
Clone 3 gave a faint nod and melted back into the dark.
Mr. P turned back to the Elian signal, faintly pulsing.
And smiled wider.
"I need more…" he whispered. "Just a little more. Then you're mine again, Elian."
...
Zero Moves His Next Piece
The Throne of Foresight was quiet.
Too quiet.
Zero stood alone, his hands folded behind his back as he watched the threads unravel.
Luther's line was nothing now but sparks and chaos.
Lust's line had gone dark.
The Choir's black thread now slithered openly through the weave, coiling around everything.
Zero said nothing.
But his fingers tightened slightly at his side.
"You all think this game is yours," he said softly.
"You forget… I wrote the board."
He turned to Sera, waiting just beyond the chamber doors.
"Begin psychological reconditioning on the subject," he ordered quietly. "Don't Break him any further, check for critical damages and notify them to me."
"Yes, Prophet," Sera murmured.
As she left, Zero turned back to the glass and studied one final line... faint, almost invisible, but undeniably there.
One even he didn't recognize.
His faint smile faded just slightly.
''Paku...''
...
The Choir Waits
Beyond Eden, in the ruined cathedral at the edge of the ash plains, the Choir gathered.
Black sigils glowed faintly in the dark as they stood in perfect silence, all eyes fixed on the masked figure at their center.
Clone 3 stood calmly, gloved hands folded, voice smooth and calm.
"Zero's moved his Bishop," he said.
"Mr. P's playing both sides."
"The savior is caged. The mirror's cracked."
He glanced down at the huge army of rebellion , shouted to the people who followed the mask leader.
'' Today marks a spark in Eden's fragile hearts, fragile mindset of believing foolish false gods." he uttered.
"As here stand , we... starting now we destroy that and bring back a new dawn , a new age of not relying on sinners with false divine revelation."
The Choir began to sing... soft at first, then louder, a discordant hymn that rose like black smoke into the broken cathedral ceiling.
Their voices carried across the dead plains, toward the faint golden glow of Eden.
And in his lab, Mr. P heard the faintest echo of their song.
He laughed.
"Ah," he murmured. "Zero… you're bleeding, aren't you?"
And the hymn rose higher still.
...
END OF CHAPTER 17: THE KNIFE AND THE MIRROR