They erged slowly, their movents synchronized like soldiers of a single will. Each one's body was made of mirrored surfaces that reflected Max's form back at him a hundred tis over. The air trembled faintly, and the surface of the lake reflected ten versions of Max, each standing beside their mirrored counterparts.
The guardians tilted their heads in eerie unison. The next instant, the calm lake exploded into motion.
The ten guardians moved at once, shattering their mirrored shells into fragnts that darted through the air like shards of silver lightning. Max imdiately activated his Three Dinsional Body, and the world slowed down around him. Every reflection, every shifting ripple, every hidden current of spatial energy beca visible in his perception.
"Ten at once," he muttered, his red eyes narrowing. "Perfect."
His figure vanished, leaving behind faint streaks of blue and red lightning as he moved with Extre Speed. In the blink of an eye, he appeared above the nearest guardian. His sword glead with red lightning as he swung downward.
"Heaven Piercing Thunderclap Sword — Fifth Form!"
The air roared as the sword ca down. A blinding bolt of red lightning split the sky, striking the guardian's mirrored body and sending cracks spreading across its surface. The lake below erupted in waves as the creature shattered into hundreds of reflective shards.
But the others didn't hesitate. They attacked from every direction, their mirrored bodies bending the light around them, creating dozens of false reflections. It beca impossible to tell which was real and which was illusion.
"Trying to trick with mirrors again?" Max said coldly.
The space around him distorted sharply as he invoked the fourth level concept of space—Spatial Collapse. The distorted air twisted into a vacuum, crushing three of the mirrored illusions instantly. The true guardians were forced out of hiding, their bodies flickering as the surrounding reflections broke apart.
Max didn't let them recover. He twisted his wrist, and his sword began to blaze with crimson fla. The entire lake glowed red from the reflection of his sword aura.
"Crimson Burial Sword Art — Second Form: Blazing Annihilation!"
He swung his blade in a horizontal arc, and an inferno of black flas erupted across the water. The mirrored guardians tried to deflect it with their bodies, but the black flas weren't ordinary. They were capable of devouring essence itself. The fire spread rapidly, consuming three more guardians as their mirrored bodies lted into pools of molten glass.
The remaining four rushed him together. Each raised their arms, and the mirrored surfaces along their limbs folded outward, creating massive circular mirrors that surrounded Max from all sides. Light gathered between them, refracting endlessly until a beam of pure destructive energy ford and shot straight toward him.
The beam struck, shaking the entire lake. For a mont, the world turned white. But when the light faded, Max was still standing. His aura burned like a miniature sun, lightning and flas swirling together around him.
"Too slow," he said quietly.
He raised his hand and invoked the Void Genesis Art. The space between him and the four guardians began to tremble violently, collapsing inward like an imploding star.
The lake distorted. The reflections of the guardians warped, their bodies stretching and twisting as the collapsing force pulled them apart piece by piece. They struggled to resist, but their mirrored forms shattered like fragile glass under the weight of the void.
BOOM!
The shockwave that followed spread outward in a massive circle, flattening the waves and splitting the mist in the distance. When it cleared, the lake had fallen silent again. The only thing that remained of the ten guardians were faint particles of silver dust slowly sinking into the water.
Max exhaled slowly, lowering his sword. The faint hum of power around him began to fade, though sparks of lightning still flickered across his shoulders and arms. His reflection stared back at him from the lake's surface, the calm ripples distorting his red eyes slightly.
"That's ten down," he said quietly. "Let's hope the next ones are stronger."
He raised his hand, summoning a faint pulse of Spatial Distortion to clear the lingering mist. The reflections of the broken guardians were gone, and the air grew unnaturally still once again.
10:58
But Max could still feel it—the faint hum of power deeper within the lake. The fight wasn't over yet. The Mirror Lake of Souls had more to reveal, and sowhere at its heart, the Lotus of Clear Serenity was still waiting.
Max tightened his grip on his sword, a faint smile forming on his lips. "Let's continue," he murmured as he stepped forward, his reflection walking with him across the rippling silver surface.
The Mirror Lake of Souls went completely silent. The mist thickened, shrouding everything in silver haze. Max's reflection in the water stared back at him, perfectly still—until it smiled.
The reflection cracked.
Ripples spread violently across the surface as the sky itself seed to bend downward, its mirrored image fusing with the lake. Then, from every direction—front, back, above, and beneath the water—mirrored figures began to rise.
One. Two. Ten. Twenty. Fifty.
By the ti the last ripple faded, a hundred guardians stood around Max in a perfect circle, each identical to the one he had fought before—smooth, reflective bodies of stacked mirrors, faceless yet nacing, their surfaces glinting like shattered dinsions. The air trembled with their presence, and the lake's reflection distorted completely, showing nothing but a hundred reflections of Max, each one standing beside its guardian.
Max's red eyes narrowed slightly. "So, this is the true trial of the Mirror Lake…"
The guardians began to move. The sound of shattering glass echoed from every direction as their mirrored limbs unfolded into blades, spears, and axes. The sky dimd, and beams of refracted light burst from their bodies, painting the battlefield in endless streaks of silver.
Then, they attacked.
A hundred beams of silver energy twisted through the air, each carrying enough force to cut through space itself. The water beneath Max's feet exploded as he leapt upward, blue lightning wrapping around his body.
"Storm King's Inheritance — Extre Speed!"
His figure blurred, vanishing entirely. The beams of light hit only afterimages. A fraction of a second later, Heaven Piercing Thunderclap Sword — Fifth Form flashed across the battlefield. Red lightning split the air, cutting through ten guardians in a single stroke. Their mirrored bodies cracked, but they didn't shatter.
The next instant, the broken pieces reford, pulling themselves back together like liquid glass.
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