“Alex!” Alyssa exclaimed as he stepped back through the portal. Her eyes darted around the shimmering red-purple smoke that twisted all around them. She had her brush held before her like a sword, ready to swing it at a moment’s notice. Wess stood by her side with his gun pointed at the air right at Alex’s head. “Is—”

“Dead,” Alex said.

“Told you,” Claire said with a wry smile. “Have a little faith in him. Alex isn’t a complete idiot. Did you get anything good?”

“A bomb,” Alex said absent-mindedly. He glanced back at the portal as it twisted shut behind him. It seemed that the Revenant had killed the only Riftwarped monster in the area. That certainly made things slightly more convenient.

“The Revenant had a bomb?” Derek asked.

“No. Some other guy did,” Alex replied. “The Revenant kind of just stood there while I hacked it apart. It was just a puppet.”

“What about its body?” Wess asked. “That thing was huge. Where’d you put it? Spatial ring? Must have been worth a pretty penny, right?”

Alex stared at the other man. Then he blinked.

Oh, goddamn it.

Without a word, he drew on what magic he had remaining and turned to where he’d been a moment ago. The portal was gone, but there was a reason that opening portals between 274-50 and the Mirrorlands drew the attention of Riftwarped Monsters.

Every portal was a damaged patch of area between the two realms. And once something was damaged, breaking it a second time was a hell of a lot easier than the first go around.

Alex extended his arms, tearing the portal back open over the span of around ten or so seconds. He stepped into the crackling energy as the others watched on in a mixture of mild amusement and confusion.

No more than a minute later, Alex returned through the portal and it snapped back closed behind him.

“Yup,” Alex said. “In my spatial ring. How’d you guess?”

Wess snorted. “Good thing I asked. Woulda been a big ole waste to leave something like that behind. I don’t much care for materials, but I get the feeling it’ll sell for a lot.”

“I’m a bit more concerned about the Revenant itself. You said it just stood around and let you kill it? That’s… not nearly as comforting as you seem to imply it should be,” Alyssa said. She swallowed. “Doesn’t that mean there’s some monster that’s vastly more powerful than the Revenant?”

“Yeah,” Alex said with a grin. “I’m looking forward to dealing with that later. I get the feeling it’ll have some great rewards when I take it out — but that thing isn’t here. The Revenant has been chasing me for ages, now. Any kind of monster that can control a puppet like that isn’t going to be putting its real body at risk when it doesn’t have to.”

Wess grunted. “So it’s definitely dead? I didn’t get any magical energy for the kill. Did you keep it all because it was in a different world?”

“Nah.” Alex shook his head. “No magical energy for that one. It was just a puppet, after all. I guess there was no power to take from it.”

Other than a Soul Flame, which is by far the better of the two rewards. I’m not sharing that one. It’s mine.

“Well, that’s that,” Derek said. He scratched the back of his neck, nearly cutting his finger open on one of the daggers protruding from it. “Should we get going, then? We’re on a bit of a time limit if we want to try and drop in on one of the Great Families while they’re fighting a major monster.”

“Yeah,” Alex said. A small frown pulled at the corners of his lips. Derek was definitely right about getting moving — but he had an open monster slot and a very, very powerful monster that was practically begging him to fill it.

He wouldn’t have said that he was an impatient man, but sprinting right into what could be a major fight with that much potential strength just left on the table felt strikingly disappointing.

I can’t just delay us again to summon the Revenant, though. Sitting around waiting in the Mirrorlands while everyone gets ahead of us is a huge waste of time and could end up costing us the best rewards of the Ancestry.

Alex’s gaze flicked to Claire as an idea struck him.

“Hey. Can you—”

“So long as I get to snack on the way,” Claire replied with a smirk before he could even finish asking his question. “No freeloaders.”

“Huh?” Wess’ brow furrowed. “What? Did I miss something?”

“No,” Claire replied as she strode over to Alex. She crouched, wrapping an arm around his back and hoisting him into the air like a sack of potatoes upon her shoulder. Lifting him seemed about as difficult to her as lifting a toy. “Let’s get moving. And work fast, Alex. I’m waking your ass up if we run into a real fight — and something tells me I’ll enjoy doing that more than you.”

She flashed him a grin over her shoulder, the coiling red-purple smoke of the Mirrorlands reflecting off her fangs.

“Noted. But this shouldn’t take too long,” Alex promised as the ground swayed below him.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Claire’s shoulder wasn’t exactly the most comfortable place he’d ever tried to meditate, but he could have imagined worse places.

He ignored the looks the others were sending him and let his eyes drift closed. Claire had always been better than him at directions, anyway. The others would be able to deal with any minor threats the Mirrorlands had and locate the nearest Outworlders without his help.

I just need to get this new monster summoned quickly.

Darkness rushed up to swallow Alex as Claire set off, bouncing him slightly with every step she took. That, too, faded as the faint sound of a wave lapping against stone rolled through Alex’s mind.

When his eyes opened again, he stood within his Mind Palace.

Berith sat chained at the side between two pillars — just as he always did. It didn’t seem like he was in a talkative mood anymore. The demon just stared at him quietly from behind his mask.

Something tells me he’s not happy about failing to scam me into promising that favor. Does Berith really take promises that seriously? Not like I make them lightly… but would getting me to promise to do something really have done all that much for him?

Alex didn’t let himself sit around and ponder that for too long. He was on a time limit, after all. Berith had already caused him enough issues. Wasting more energy on the demon wasn’t going to be much help right now.

He reached into the silver box at his waist. Reaching Adept 1 should have granted him an extra Spatial Mirror. And, sure enough, he found it. An empty shard of glass, waiting for a new monster to hold within it.

The Forsaken Revenant might have been a puppet, but it did have a Soul Flame. It also wasn’t a Riftwarped Monster, so I should be able to pop it in here no problem.

Alex reached into the glass. It resisted his touch for an instant before his fingertips pushed into its glossy silver surface. Cool energy prickled against his arm from every direction as he inserted it up to his elbow.

His fingers found the Revenant’s Soul Flame instantly, as if it knew he was searching for it. A flicker of surprise passed through him.

The Soul Flame was huge. He didn’t recall it being this large when he’d first retrieved it. The cold blue-black ball was easily twice the size of any other flame that Alex had gotten his hands on.

Is it really this powerful? Holy shit.

Excitement swirled in Alex’s stomach as he pulled his hand back. The freezing cold grew stronger. Pressure built as he pulled on the flame, though not nearly as much as there would have been with a Riftwarped monster.

It was possible. He could summon the Forsaken Revenant. All he had to do was—

Alex’s hand thunked to a halt, already pulled out all the way to his wrist.

The flame didn’t fit through the mirror.

Alex blinked. He tried to twist his hand, looking for an angle that would let him pry the massive Soul Flame out from its containment.

Nothing worked. No matter how hard he tried to squeeze or tug the fire out from within the Spatial Mirror, it refused to budge. This was no magical restriction. Alex was certain of it. He was more than capable of summoning the monster.

It just physically didn’t fit through the small area of the mirror.

“You can’t be serious,” Alex muttered. He pulled again, but it was completely pointless. Even if he could have somehow moved the flame so his fingers weren’t taking up extra space at the sides of the Spatial Mirror, the flame itself was just too big.

He tried squeezing the flame to compress its size, but that did nothing at all. The Soul Flame just flickered and danced around his fingers. It stubbornly remained as it was.

Alex released the Soul Flame and pulled his hand free. He shook it off to get rid of the cold energy prickling against his skin like static, then stared down at his empty Spatial Mirror in disbelief.

That’s a load of bullshit. What’s the point of a Soul Flame so big that you literally can’t take it back out of the mirror once you put it in?

He flopped down on the surface of the lake, sending a ripple rolling out through his Mind Palace, and set the mirror down on the dark water before him. Then he crossed his arms in front of his chest.

There was no way he could accept the prospect that the soul was just stuck. Somehow, it could be extracted. If there was one thing he’d become pretty certain of since the beginning of the Apocalypse, it was that nothing was impossible under the eyes of the System.

That said, there was absolutely no way the Forsaken Revenant’s Soul Flame would ever fit through a single Spatial Mirror. It was literally nearly twice as large as the entrance. He still wasn’t sure how it had expanded, but there didn’t seem to be anything he could do about that.

“I can’t even combine it with another monster. I think Spark could use a boost. He’s a bit weak compared to Princess and Glint,” Alex mused. But that idea was equally hopeless. Combining monsters still required him to be able to pull their soul out of the mirror.

If I want to do anything at all with the Forsaken Revenant, I would probably need two…

Alex’s thoughts trailed off. Then his head tilted to the side.

Wait.

He pulled Spark’s mirror out from the deck box. Then he set it down on the lake beside the new, empty one. Side by side, they were definitely just wide enough to squeeze the Forsaken Revenant’s flame out.

Could I just…

Alex pushed them together. To his surprise, a faint shimmer of energy rose up from the edges of the cards as they grew close. The light grew brighter as he pushed their edges together. There was a sharp snap, followed by a faint flicker of brilliant blue light from deep within the cards.

Then the cards slid into each other with a click, merging into a single mirror bordered with a faint golden trim that hadn’t been there before. Golden letters shimmered through the air before him.

You have combined two of your Soul Mirrors.

“Would you look at that?” Alex mused, reaching down and picking up the new card. It was exactly the same size as a single, normal Soul Mirror — but that wasn’t to say it could have ever been confused for a normal mirror.

Its inside had bent like a prism had been trapped within it. There was a three-dimensional aspect to the mirror that hadn’t been there before. The light passing through it refracted and bounced against invisible surfaces surrounding the Soul Flames.

Bit of an upgrade to the house, huh, Spark? But I’m going to be pissed if I wasted a Soul Mirror just to bling this out.

Alex reached into the mirror once again, his fingers finding the Forsaken Revenant’s massive blue flame once again. Once again he pulled.

But this time, the surface of the mirror felt different. As Alex’s wrist bumped up against it, the edges of the mirror seemed to fold like origami. It wasn’t a physical change as much as one inside the mirror — as if there was more space inside it than outside it.

Alex watched in equal parts disbelief and excitement as his hand slowly slid free of the mirror. His fingers looked like they were glitching through the edges of the glass.

Then, with a pop, he yanked his arm free.

And clutched in his fingers was the Forsaken Revenant’s Soul Flame. It was so large that he may as well have been palming a freezing basketball, but he had it all the same. A wide grin stretched across Alex’s lips.

“Right, Spark,” Alex said, reaching back into the mirror to pull out Spark’s Soul Flame. “Let’s get you a big upgrade.”