Mirror of Slumber

In short, Aoko Aozaki and Alice Kuonji spent a relaxing afternoon at the Kuonji Residence. The two maintained a tacit understanding, and neither mentioned that Touko Aozaki might be preparing to intercept them.

Three days after Ruge Beowulf was confined to the Imaginary Prison, Aoko approached Alice.

"Alice, I need your help with something," Aoko said seriously to Alice, who was sitting beside her on the sofa. "I want you to help me use the Mirror of Slumber."

Alice slowly sipped her black tea, not rushing to respond to Aoko's request. She waited a moment before turning her head to look at Aoko.

"To be clear, the Mirror of Slumber isn't fully repaired," Alice said. "So, it's not one hundred percent accurate for finding things."

"I understand," Aoko replied. "I have a general idea of where Toko might be hiding. Using the Mirror of Slumber is just for a secondary confirmation."

"Let me confirm again, are you sure you want to use the Mirror of Slumber to find Toko?" Alice asked seriously this time.

"I'm not the type to regret things," Aoko said frankly. "You should have confidence in my abilities."

"If you fail, Toko's position will become your prison," Alice said sternly.

"It's not that easy to trap me in this world."

The two arrived at the location of the Mirror of Slumber. Alice no longer tried to dissuade Aoko, as she could see Aoko's determination and had a degree of understanding of Aoko's strength.

Alice placed the mirror flat on the table. She gently brushed her hand across the surface, and a "plop" sound of water echoed.

The image in the mirror shifted from blurry to clear, finally settling on the mountain forests near the Old School Building.

The scope of the image was vast. If someone else were to search, it would likely take a considerable amount of time.

"Toko took countermeasures against the Mirror of Slumber, so this is the only precision I can achieve," Alice said, frowning.

Originally, the Mirror of Slumber contained an Egg of Magus within it. However, since it was an unfinished item, it had no real function.

But Alice's mother had invited the still-young Toko to help remanufacture and repair the mirror, integrating the egg and the mirror into one. Therefore, Toko was very familiar with this PLOY.

Now, it was an item that could soften and distort physical laws within a bounded field.

"It's fine," Aoko shook her head. "The mirror's search result confirms my guess. Please continue."

Hearing Aoko's words, Alice took out something resembling a chess piece and placed it on the main body of the Mirror of Slumber. The mirror disappeared into a thick fog and sank off the table.

The chess piece also seemed to melt, becoming the "Nameless Forest" that enveloped the Old School Building area.

"I'll be back soon," Aoko smiled at Alice and walked through a door that had appeared in the mansion without looking back.

Using the Nameless Forest was Aoko's idea because she didn't want to involve any ordinary people in her fight with Toko. As for the leakage of mystery, she didn't care.

As long as they were within the bounds of this nameless forest, any human who was not a Magus would receive the suggestion "there is no need to go forward," which was a type of expulsion Magecraft.

Aoko could do this herself, but the scale was far beyond what the Nameless Forest could achieve.

She used the inner world of the Mirror of Slumber to achieve positional targeting and actual spatial transfer, meaning she entered through one door and exited from another door near the destination.

This was a function that the original Mirror of Slumber did not possess. Aoko had requested it from Alice after arriving at the Kuonji Residence, and they had spent a lot of time together to implement it.

However, achieving this seemingly simple yet overly powerful function was not easy. Aoko combined some knowledge she had learned from the Weave (specifically the parts concerning other worlds and dimensions) and ultimately could only make the mirror's transfer function usable by herself.

This was because anyone else who entered the mirror would inexplicably lose their way and then be expelled near the entry point after a while.

Only Aoko could adapt to the mirror's incomplete and chaotic space without getting lost and eventually find the desired exit.

Aoko now found herself in a wilderness some distance away from the real Old School Building.

To call it a wilderness wasn't entirely accurate, as she had emerged from a small, cabin-like building that resembled a farmhouse.

Before her lay a vast, white plain, covered by the snow of November.

Gazing at the Old School Building in the distance, Aoko smiled and flew into the sky.

Her long red hair danced in the cold wind. Dressed in a wine-red dress with black stockings, Aoko descended from the sky and landed steadily in front of the entrance of the Old School Building.

The moment Aoko landed, an anomaly occurred.

Centered on the spot where her feet stood, dense Rune script instantly appeared. A significant portion of them were designed to bind the target that stepped into the trap, while the remaining Runes represented burning.

These Runes were arranged with exquisite precision, hundreds of thousands of characters interconnected to mimic stellar nucleosynthesis (the PP chain) and achieve a chain reaction, aiming to unleash as much power as possible in an extremely short period.

Countless thread-like magecraft climbed onto Aoko's body, pinning her firmly in place. What followed was infinite light and heat as the magical fire ignited by the Rune script completely engulfed Aoko's figure.

Touko Aozaki, who had been fully prepared for the confrontation, emerged from the main entrance of the Old School Building. Her face was fierce as she glared at the spot where Aoko had descended.

Thick smoke enveloped the surroundings. Normally, no living being could survive such intense heat.

But Toko remained fully alert, because she knew that Aoko could not be defeated by such an ambush.

She had vaguely sensed since their childhood, when they studied Magecraft together, that her sister's talent was not inferior to her own, the "Egg of Magus" who was considered brilliant by outsiders.

In Toko's eyes, Aoko's attitude of "not caring about anything" was a calm demeanor born from her knowing everything in advance.

The letter Aoko sent two years ago, reminding Toko to eliminate Alba and Souren Araya, further solidified Toko's suspicions about Aoko.

Toko's return to Misaki, in addition to her desire to seize the Fifth Magic, was also fueled by her accumulated dissatisfaction with Aoko's "calm attitude" over the years.

If she knew the outcome today beforehand, why didn't she tell her earlier?

If she knew everything in advance, then what was the point of all the efforts the Magus named Touko Aozaki had made up to this point?

Toko was angry at their grandfather, angry at Aoko's flippant attitude, angry at her childhood friend who sided with Aoko against her, and angry at herself.

The flames of anger burned quietly in Toko's heart. Perhaps she had already guessed the outcome of this battle, but she still gave it her all, wanting to prove something.