Mirror Image

89. Mirror Image

Arrows and magic flew through the air, fire spread, and the forest burned.

Humans and elves were all mixed together, slashing, stabbing, and knocking one another down as they took lives right before my eyes.

It was a scene that stirred no real feeling. To call it tragic would have been generous; it was too crude at a glance.

The fighters looked like nothing more than faceless mannequins.

The flying weapons looked like nothing more than props for a film shoot.

The sky, the trees, and even the starlight all looked like nothing more than crudely rendered video.

It felt like watching a childish, low-budget CG movie through a half-open door.

I guess I'm dreaming, but what the hell is wrong with my imagination to make a dream like this?

I don't get the context at all, and it's just absurdly long.

Dreams are usually like that, but after not dreaming for years, having one like this feels wrong somehow.

"How long is this going to keep going?"

I muttered to myself in the dream, unable even to properly feel my own body. Even so, the dream continued.

It kept stringing out endlessly crude footage until I, exhausted from watching it for so long, finally fell asleep even inside the dream.

And the moment I slipped into yet another dream within the dream, my eyes opened on their own.

"Good morning, my dear."

It was a morning with bright sunlight pouring down.

**

Eleanor thanked me, saying she had finally gotten a good night's sleep thanks to me.

For all that, her eyes still looked tired, though the cause of that fatigue probably wasn't just insomnia.

She must have had too much piled up for one good night's sleep to clear it away. It had little to do with me.

"By the way, you slept very soundly too, didn't you? For someone who resisted so much, my arms must have been pretty comfortable, huh?"

Surprisingly, that was true. I wasn't sure whether it was Eleanor's influence, but I had slept deeply for the first time in a while too.

Seeing as I'd dreamed all sorts of things I'd never dreamed in my life, the different sleeping arrangement seemed to have had an effect.

But I'd never even wanted to sleep deeply in the first place, so it hardly mattered.

"No, I just had a stupid dream."

I brushed off Eleanor's words and loosened up with a little stretching.

I'd already wasted several hours sleeping, so I needed to use the time I had left as frugally as possible.

The objective of this Epic Quest was to fulfill Eleanor's wish, the queen's command.

This wasn't a quest you cleared just by spending one night asleep beside her. The point was to put Eleanor at ease.

At night, I'd sleep beside Eleanor, and by day I'd help ease the burden of the war that was wearing her down.

It wasn't much different from what I had been doing on the 8th floor. I just had to roam the battlefield every day and bring enemies down.

"A dream, huh... I had one last night too. Maybe because I finally slept deeply after so long, it was a rather strange experience."

Still half asleep, Eleanor murmured in a dazed voice as I got my gear ready.

**

The kingdom forces, with tamed monsters organized into formations, were certainly formidable.

Because my stats were absurdly high, nothing could really count as a crisis, but they were by no means easy to deal with.

The kingdom army had not only ordinary mages, but also shamans and black mages.

Not only did they control tamed monsters to attack, they also pressed me with all kinds of magic and tactics.

They were exploiting the fact that I wasn't the type to fight with allies at my back, but the type to charge alone into the enemy line.

They'd send in a huge number of monsters to force me to stand my ground, then pour spells meant for large-scale annihilation onto just me.

With multiple shamans and black mages stacking restraints and debuffs at once, even I had a hard time dealing with it.

They could also use the tamed monsters to interfere with mana detection, and that let them land several powerful hits on me.

Still, like I said, it never rose to the level of a real crisis.

The [Spell Resistance] and [Anti-Magic Resistance] skills I'd built up by taking hits from the Emerald Wyvern were steadily protecting me.

On top of that, fire, ice, and lightning damage were sometimes being cut in half, then halved again thanks to my resistances.

The shamans' poison attacks were reduced to less than half, to the point of being outright nullified.

And by keeping this up, I even naturally gained resistances I hadn't had before.

[Passive Skill: Curse Resistance Level 1 has been learned.]

The skill itself was fairly common, but it was curse resistance, which I'd never had a chance to get before.

Maybe because the curse itself wasn't that strong, I couldn't get past level 1 easily for a while.

"Hey, keep doing that."

"Y-yes?"

"I said, cast more curses."

I solved it by keeping one black mage alive and captive, then making him keep casting curses on me.

That was how I squeezed the captive black mage dry and got [Curse Resistance] up to level 3 today.

It had been two weeks since I entered the 9th floor.

During that time, the Epic Quest hadn't advanced at all.

**

Eleanor slept beside me every day, but for some reason she seemed to be getting worse by the day.

"Mm? What are you talking about? Thanks to you, I've been feeling great lately."

"Doesn't look like it."

"You're seeing it wrong. I'm the one worried about you, actually."

She said that, but anyone with eyes could tell that wasn't true.

The star burning in Eleanor's eyes was steadily losing its light. I couldn't explain it easily, but I could feel it.

Was it because we had once shared memories through a Night Elf secret art, or had my instincts simply sharpened?

Somehow, I could tell that Eleanor's emotions were churning violently.

"Really, it's just... I've had a little more on my mind lately, that's all."

I understood that. Even though I was running around doing my best, the war showed no sign of improving.

Even now, casualties kept appearing every day, however few they were.

To me they were just NPCs, but to Eleanor they were surely her precious kin and people.

"The weight of the crown feels like it's going to break my neck."

Eleanor, speaking as if exhausted, looked utterly unlike herself, but that expression itself felt like something I'd seen somewhere before.

In any case, unless I drastically changed the course of this godforsaken war, I didn't think I could clear this quest.

**

Up to now, I'd only been stirring things up in the areas near the dark elves' territory.

I'd never pushed deeper than that, for example by forcing my way into the interior of another faction's territory and launching an offensive.

My opponents weren't just a simple group but huge factions; no matter how strong I was, I couldn't overwhelm everything alone.

If they were merely numerous, that would be one thing, but each faction also had elite NPCs and overpowered individuals like Mercedes.

But by now I had no other choice, and I figured I'd have trouble growing any further by just defending this area and fighting here.

Then what else was I supposed to do?

I'd have to charge straight in.

The obvious target was the high elf faction, whose capabilities I'd already gotten a read on once.

I didn't know how skilled the High Elf King was, but even generously speaking, he'd be weaker than Mercedes.

After all, Mercedes herself had stats that were several steps beyond common sense.

The other elite-tier ones would probably be at that knight's level, and as for Mercedes, I was confident I could beat her now.

I'd already seen enough of her ability in our duel on the 7th floor, and now I could catch up in stats with Mana Enhancement.

I checked my gear, got ready, and immediately headed toward the high elves' territory.

And not long after that, I ran into an enemy in an unexpected place.

The place was the outer edge of the great forest, straddling the border between dark elf and high elf territory.

Near the area where I'd first encountered elves after reaching the 7th floor, I spotted a familiar face.

Truth be told, the face itself wasn't all that familiar, but there was one unmistakable physical feature that stood out.

A High Elf woman with one ear clipped off.

Mercedes.

The strongest NPC of the high elves was, for some reason, dressed in shabby clothes and leaning against a tree trunk to rest.

What the hell is that? Why is that bitch here?

I had meant to face her head-on, but I never dreamed she'd just be lying there alone in a place like this.

And what was with that outfit? It wasn't the outfit she wore at our duel, nor the armor I'd seen her in before.

Maybe she'd had some circumstances over the last hundred years, but why was someone that strong wandering around like this?

I couldn't begin to guess.

And seeing her sprawled out without even properly sensing my presence, she must have been insanely exhausted.

-step, step.

After a brief moment of thought, I gripped my sword in one hand and approached Mercedes to speak.

"What are you doing here?"

!

Mercedes jerked awake in surprise, then quickly drew her sword and shield and took up a battle stance.

She had already taken her stance the instant I entered range, even before I could speak.

That insane stat spread and combat sense of hers hadn't gone anywhere. I suppose that's a relief.

"You... you are...!"

Once Mercedes saw my face, her expression twisted at once.

For me, it had been a few weeks. For her, it had been 120 years.

Her face was even more filled with hatred than it had been when I cut off that ear.