The two of them advanced a short distance farther when Herta noticed Kanzaki's ears twitch. Both of them stopped at the same moment.
She lifted her gaze toward the path ahead.
The thick fog had thinned considerably, giving way to a bizarre sight.
The ground had vanished.
Or rather, the damp, cold earth they had been walking on had transformed into an enormous expanse of black glass. It was not a single smooth surface, but a chaotic mosaic pieced together from countless irregular fragments of every size.
Above and around them, numerous mirrors of widely varying sizes floated in the air. Some were no larger than a palm. Others rose as tall and imposing as skyscrapers. These mirrors hovered in the void, eerily reflecting pale light from a source that could not be seen.
Herta's pupils contracted slightly.
As a genius whose intellect had long since outstripped ordinary limits, she possessed an instinctive sensitivity to the spatial structures here. Everything about this place was completely chaotic. Gravity, distance, and direction itself had all been twisted by the reflections of the floating mirrors.
"What kind of hellish place is this?"
"You actually don't know?" Herta sounded mildly surprised.
"Silly kid, think about how big the Labyrinth Zone is. I haven't been everywhere." Kanzaki pouted.
"…If you've forgotten my name, you'd better call me reserve rations."
"Tsk. Now you're making demands!"
Herta ignored him and pondered for a moment, roughly piecing together what this place must be.
"It should be the Life-taking Mirror Shadow."
"Explain."
"A horror mystery ghost-challenge movie. The Mirror Ghosts here have the ability to divide. Their reflections inside the mirrors become shadows that can steal the life of the original."
"Get to the point."
"The shadows will emerge from the mirrors to attack the original. Once touched, they drain vitality. Exceed a certain number of times, and you die."
"Mirrors… an overused horror element in human-created scary stories."
Kanzaki raised an eyebrow and stepped forward. His black leather boots made irregular, crisp sounds against the glass underfoot.
"What about this pure black glass underfoot that doesn't look like a mirror? Is it dangerous?"
"I didn't finish that boring movie, so I don't remember the details clearly."
"So even not watching bad movies can be punished. But I have no right to complain, since I might be from a bad movie myself."
Kanzaki gave a self-deprecating smile, then straightened his expression.
"Since you didn't finish it, doesn't that mean you don't know how to get through here?"
"I do know about this part. It's related to spatial curvature. The ghost's true form has no combat power and dies with one slash. As long as you find the hidden space where it's concealed, you can survive."
"Then what are we waiting for? Find it quickly."
"Mm. Let's move forward first," Herta nodded.
However, just as Kanzaki took his third step, an unexpected incident occurred.
Thud!
A dull impact rang out, and he staggered.
The surroundings were clearly empty, yet the moment he collided with something, strange ripples spread through the air.
"Low-level."
Kanzaki steadied himself and rubbed his forehead.
"The design is so unreasonable. There's even an invisible wall."
Herta pondered quietly, countless complex equations flashing through her mind.
"Keep an eye on the surroundings for me, Mr. Magician."
"Oh."
Herta reached out and touched the invisible barrier. Solid feedback met her fingertips.
It was not an invisible wall. It was an unseen mirror.
Judging by the touch, it was a two-way mirror, and its spatial coordinates were somewhat strange, distorting the nearby ones as well.
As the human with the highest IQ on The Blue, when it came to space there was no puzzle she could not eventually solve.
She turned to observe the surroundings more carefully.
The floating mirrors were not completely still. They rotated at a rather slow speed, eventually reflecting every corner of the area.
Herta's gaze paused on a large floor-length mirror to the left.
The mirror reflected her image—a girl whose face showed clear exhaustion.
The girl in the mirror was also looking at her.
Herta blinked. The girl in the mirror blinked too.
Everything seemed normal.
Herta turned her head, intending to warn Kanzaki about the dangers of this space. In that brief motion her peripheral vision caught something that put her instantly on alert.
The Herta in the mirror did not follow her turn. She was still staring straight ahead.
On that eerie little face, the corners of the mouth slowly stretched to the sides, blooming into an extremely exaggerated, twisted smile. The curve extended all the way to the ears, revealing a mouthful of pale, jagged teeth.
Crack!
The large floor-length mirror shattered in an instant. Countless sharp fragments flew in every direction.
A piercing scream erupted from the broken mirror, then dissipated into a thin wisp of black smoke.
"So ugly it's physically repulsive. My reserve rations are much prettier. If I looked like that, I'd vomit."
Kanzaki retracted his staff, cursing under his breath.
Herta looked at him, then at the staff that had just smashed the mirror.
"Aren't you afraid of breaking it?"
"A staff is not such an inconvenient thing. A powerful magician doesn't worry about damaging their tools. As long as it's handy, it's fine." Kanzaki grinned.
A strange, man-eating Mr. Magician.
The person who created him… probably had an abnormal thought process.
Most likely a low-skill, rule-breaking, failed screenwriter.
"Using such low-level scare tactics… it seems the things in this labyrinth are more uncouth than I imagined." Kanzaki shook his wrist.
Herta stared at the broken mirror fragments on the ground, lost in thought.
Once the mirror shattered, the spatial curvature began to fluctuate, reflecting more of her face in the remaining surfaces.
"Mr. Magician, how many people have you eaten?"
"Why so many questions from mere reserve rations?"
"To confirm if you've been swapped by a shadow from the mirror. I just remembered another setting: shadows speak differently from the original," Herta replied.
"I see."
"So, how many people have you eaten?"
"Do you remember how many meals you've eaten?"
"I don't, but there don't seem to be many astronauts from The Blue passing through nearby coordinates, so you probably haven't eaten many…"
"Shut up!"
Kanzaki's eye twitched. He reached out and pinched Herta's cheeks, pulling them slightly to the sides.
"Instead of asking these pointless questions, hurry up and find a way to break through the labyrinth. Your time is limited."
"I've been looking, but Mr. Magician, could I ask you a favor?"
"No."
"Next time, please don't shatter the mirrors. Each fragment becomes a new independent mirror surface, which might summon more shadows."
Herta pretended not to hear Kanzaki's rebuttal.
Kanzaki's mouth twitched.
"Ignoring my words, huh? It seems your character isn't too off. I really want to eat you right now."
As soon as he finished speaking, the entire Life-taking Mirror Shadow labyrinth seemed to activate.
The slowly rotating mirrors suddenly accelerated. Countless pale beams of light projected toward them.
Herta felt her center of gravity shift. She was lifted and seated firmly on Kanzaki's staff as they soared into the air.
"No need to guess. Being hit by that light is definitely bad news."
"Yes. It immobilizes you for ten seconds. But Mr. Magician, aren't your eyesight not so good?"
"Poor eyesight doesn't mean I have bad luck or poor danger perception. Hold on tight. Don't fall off."
"Mm."