When Zhen Liu ripped off the cloth covering the mirror, both he and cousins assud nothing would happen.
This assumption didn’t arise from the fact that they thought the mirror the was broken or because it was actually a red herring, rather, this assumption was due to Zhen Liu’s cultivation and in-born issues.
[Chaos] was infamously able to resist, ignore and outright cancel anything remotely related to aether.
Attacks would fizzle out, traps would fail to properly activate and defenses would get torn to shreds as [Chaos] disrupted the flow of aether in devastating ways.
While there were exceptions to this outco, they were normally quite rare.
On top of that, Zhen Liu had no aether channels to begin with, so any aether based clones would be created with those sa problems and wouldn’t be able to do anything.
However, this didn’t turn out to be the case.
"Alright you freaky mirror, let’s see what you look like!," Zhen Liu declared while ripping off the cloth that was covering it.
The mont he did, a malevolent energy filled the room as the dark mirror behind the cloth beca exposed to the world and reflected the first thing that was inside of its fra: Zhen Liu.
However, this mirror didn’t perfectly reflect Zhen Liu.
"Oh what the fuck?!" Zhen Tai cried in alarm at the newly revealed reflection.
"Why is it showing you looking like that?" Zhen Xing asked. "Why is it giving a bad case of foreboding?"
"Oh, this is so fun house mirror shit! Great!!" Zhen Liu exclaid, now expecting the worst to happen.
Zhen Liu found himself staring at a twisted reflection of himself being frad in the center of a pitch black mirror.
This version of Zhen Liu looked an undead monster that was wreathed in flas and had a massive gaping hole in the dead center of its forehead.
It was a hole that was reminiscent of the one that Zhen Liu used to have in the center of his forehead, back when he was first murdered.
"Well, that’s insulting," Zhen Liu said aloud as soon as he saw the reflection.
Sound of an inhuman being breaking out of its glass prison.
"And that is worrying!"
...anwhile in Zhen Liu’s head...
[Milord, did you want us to take care of this fake for you or not?]
’No no, this one is personal.’
[Very well.]
...Now back to the mirrors...
Soon after Zhen Liu made his personal observation known, the undead version of Zhen Liu suddenly reached it’s hand forwards and grabbed on to the fra of the mirror.
A ghastly groan echoed from the mirror as the undead version of Zhen Liu began to pull itself forward.
"Wait, what?"
"Xiao Liu, I thought you said that this mirror thing wouldn’t be able to copy you," Zhen Xing said as he took on a fighting stance and activated his [Flying Fox Fire Wheels], the treasure he picked up in Roaring Tide.
"I did, yes," Zhen Liu reiterated while taking a step backwards.
"Then why is all that happening?!," Zhen Tai followed up while activating his own personal aether treasure.
"I don’t know! I shouldn’t have any-wait a minute."
In that exact mont, Zhen Liu rembered he had two, complentary aether treasures that technically counted as being aether abilities.
The first was the [Ghost Fla] remnants that had beco a part of his soul and formula when he devoured them during the Tournant Bombing incident.
While the second was the, technically, cursed hamr on his hip, the [Hamr of the Dearly Departed].
It’s been often said that a weapon was rely an extension of its user, and in this case it was very literal.
"The mirror fucking copied my treasures and is now using those as the basis for my reflection’s abilities."
"What does that an?," Zhen Xing asked.
"It ans DUCK!"
"AOoOOOOoo!"
"Shit!"
The undead reflection of Zhen Liu had only partially ripped itself out of its glass prison, but that gave the copy just enough space to draw the hamr on his hip and swing it outward, releasing a wave of ghastly green flas that carried this small hint of blackness to it.
Fortunately, Zhen Liu’s warning ca just in ti.
All three of the Zhen Clan scions dropped to the ground as the copied ghost flas flew over their heads. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to do anything about the sll of burning flesh that naturally ca with the ghost fla.
"Ugh!"
"Gross!"
Unfortunately, this wasn’t the end of it.
...
[Caretaker, above you!]
’Got it!’
...
Whilst the Zhen Clan warriors were busy ducking their heads down, the undead copy had finished pulling itself out of the mirror and had launched itself into the air.
Once he was airborne, the undead copy proceeded to grab his hamr with both hands and channel both aether and [Ghost Fla] into it in order to create a greatsword made of both.
The blade radiated death and heat as the fake Zhen Liu brought it down on Zhen Liu’s head.
KLANG!
"Fuck off!"
Not one to be decapitated without putting up a fight, Zhen Liu took out his own hamr, the [Veteran’s Bone Club], and used them to catch the blade.
A horrible grinding sound occurred as Zhen Liu pushed back against the sword attempting to slice his head open.
However, this sound wasn’t due to the sound of tal clashing tal. Instead, this sound ca from the fact that Zhen Liu’s [Chaos] was clashing against this copy’s aether.
"Wait, I thought [Chaos] usually negated aether," Zhen Xing noticed, his guard raising higher than ever.
"Normally, yes!," Zhen Liu shouted while still pushing back against the greatsword coming down on him. "But only if I’m stronger or equal to the aether coming towards . So what the fuck does that tell you about this thing?!"
"Oh...shit."
"Uhh..."
"Oooh..."
"OH SHIT!"
Evidently, the undead clone of Zhen Liu did a little more than just release a wave of flas earlier.
The embers from that fla had actually travelled further than they had all anticipated and managed to ignite several cloth covered mirrors that were directly behind Zhen Xing and Zhen Tai.
In the ti it took for Zhen Liu and his copy to lock blades, the mirrors behind Zhen Xing and Zhen Tai released their own copies.
Just like how Zhen Liu’s copy was a strange and twisted version of the man, these clones of Zhen Tai and Zhen Xing were also twisted facsimiles.
Zhen Tai was a hot-headed brawler with a tendency to use hand-focused aether arts. His reflection seed to be a brawler as well, but the aura surrounding them was ice cold and their expression suggested cold indifference.
Zhen Xing, on the other hand, used to be a braggadocious hot head that focused on fancy footwork and trickery, but had since llowed out on the forr but kept up on the latter.
His reflection was silent, but carried itself with a haughty deanor that he now hated to see, and had these strange arcs of electricity coursing around him.
Making this entire encounter even more annoying though, they were both ard with the sa aether treasures too.
"Oh great, we’re our own worse enemy," Zhen Xing noted. "Well, I always said that only I would be able to defeat myself. Now to see if that’s true."
"It’s not everyday I get to out punch myself," Zhen Tai noted. "This is going to be...hang on, who the fuck is that?
"Uh..."
Accompanying Zhen Tai and Zhen Xing’s reflections was a third one that looked like a porcelain doll version of a female brawler.
"Wait a minute..."
"It couldn’t be..."
The longer they stared at this strange porcelain reflection, the more they realized that it looked incredibly similar to Zhen Liu’s latest proto-kaijin.
"No fucking way..."
...
[Is that...?,] Corpse Doll asked the other Kaijin.
[Looks like it.]
[Okay...how?]
[Wait... you’re a proto-kaijin still, yeah?] Razorstella asked.
[Yes...]
[That’s why. You’re technically more aether than Chaos right now.]
[Oh...well then, I guess it’s ti for to fight.... Oh, this is going to be fun!]
...
Prompted by the appearance of this porcelain clone, Corpse Doll imdiately manifested from the box backpack on Zhen Liu’s back and began to walk towards it.
In response, the porcelain reflection began to walk forward as well.
As the two warrior monster won got closer, they began to circulate aether in very similar manners but the feelings were quite different.
Corpse doll radiated this sinister feeling that most people would associated with curses, while the porcelain reflection radiated this odd feeling of purity.
Once they were in punching range, all hell broke loose.
"Go!"
"Ora!"
Both dolls began to exchange a flurry of blows against one another that sounded similar to soone punching an iron sheet.
And they weren’t the only ones about to get into the swing of things.
Shortly after the exchange began, Zhen Tai and Zhen Xing decided to engage with the clones as well.
[Sun Viper Fist!]
[Foxfire Wheel Kick!]
Unfortunately, the reflections thought to do the sa.
[Reflection: Ice Serpent Fist]
[Reflection: Weasel Thunderbolt Kick!]
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