Two-Sided Mirror

Lin Xiu crashed heavily onto the laboratory's metal floor, nearly crushing his back teeth from gritting them.

The icy metal floor drove pain into his knees, while the air reeked of engine oil and the scorched aftermath of electrical arcs.

Bracing himself on his knees, he gasped violently. Blood beaded at his temple and ran down his jaw into his collar. The burning pain only made his mind clearer—this was pain from the real world, not an illusion from Consciousness Space.

The smell of blood filled his nostrils, making him even more certain that he had escaped that void.

"Oracle, armor status." He loosened his collar and pressed his knuckles against the floor, forcing himself into a half-kneeling position.

The moment his fingertips touched the ground, a chill shot from his palm straight to his elbow.

The sensation of Nanobots crawling across his skin abruptly paused. The system's mechanical voice sounded in his earpiece: "Unknown data stream detected in core module. Dimensional source anomalous. Attempting decryption... Decryption failed.

This data possesses autonomous evolutionary properties. Immediate isolation is recommended."

Evolution?

Lin Xiu's pupils contracted slightly.

His temples throbbed as if a fine needle were lightly prodding his nerves.

He tore off the armor interface at his wrist. A pale-blue ribbon of energy gathered in his palm, forming a holographic screen. The data stream twisted like a living creature, restructuring itself every second.

The characters possessed a strange, shifting beauty, as though they were whispering, breathing, watching.

The laboratory's emergency lights flickered overhead. Their cold white glow painted the characters an eerie bluish gray, like vines growing in darkness.

Static in the air made his skin tingle, as though invisible pressure had wrapped itself around the entire space.

"You brought back something that should not exist."

A sinister male voice descended from above, carrying an echo like scraping metal.

Lin Xiu abruptly looked up and saw Icarus Vaughn hovering amid the broken walls and ruins of a church.

The wind whipped his robes, carrying the scent of damp earth and decaying magic.

Dark-purple energy rolled along the edges of his black robe. The star charts flowing through his pupils looked even murkier than when they had last met, as if some force had forcibly torn open cracks within them.

His voice grated like shattered ice, every word heavy with pressure. "What do you think you're playing with?"

Lin Xiu wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and pushed himself to his feet.

Nano Armor automatically covered his right leg, the scrape of metal especially clear in the silence.

He could hear the faint clicks of the armor joints locking together, as if a steel beast were awakening.

"If you know what it is, you might as well say so." He deliberately stressed the word "know"—this mage who had always tested him in Consciousness Space clearly hid more secrets.

Icarus's fingers brushed the silver patterns on the front of his robe. The patterns suddenly came alive and surged toward the ground, drawing a translucent energy barrier between them.

Strange magical runes flowed across the barrier's surface, as if an ancient language were whispering.

Lin Xiu could feel magical particles within the barrier attempting to penetrate his armor. The Oracle System immediately issued a warning: "Reality Anchor interference detected. Activation of Anti-Mental Force Field recommended."

"It's consciousness residue." Lin Xiu suddenly cut him off as the holographic screen in his palm burst into blinding white light.

Specks of light fell across his face, flickering like a mask.

He stared at the fragmented images that had suddenly appeared in the data stream—laboratory, Quantum Collider, another version of himself speaking to empty air: "Oracle, record all data."

The images were colder in tone than his memories, as though they had been soaked in liquid nitrogen.

The background sounds from the images were blurred and distant, like whispers traveling across time and space.

Icarus's pupils suddenly constricted.

His floating body abruptly dropped half a meter. The energy ribbons beneath his robe went dark in an instant, as if he were a puppet whose strings had been cut. "You..." He reached out, only to pull back the moment his hand touched the barrier. "You shouldn't have cracked it so quickly."

"I didn't bring this back. It came to me on its own." Lin Xiu lowered his gaze to the holographic screen. The fragments began assembling into a complete timeline: another version of himself had touched the Crystal Pyramid in Consciousness Space, lingered for 0.3 seconds longer before the rift closed, and planted this "seed" inside the Nanocore.

He suddenly smiled, carrying the excitement of a researcher discovering a variable.

There was also a dangerous delight in that smile, like a hunter spotting a flaw in his prey.

Icarus's figure suddenly became insubstantial.

He looked up toward the laboratory dome, where the daylight over New York could faintly be seen—the sun of the main timeline was rising.

"A warning: when two consciousnesses begin to resonate..."

Before he could finish, his figure vanished completely.

A faint smell of ozone and a lingering ripple of magic remained in the air.

Lin Xiu looked at the empty ruins, his fingertips rubbing the patterns on his armored wristguard.

The Oracle System prompted in his ear: "Target energy signature has disappeared. Current security level raised to Level Two."

He bent down and picked up the Tactical Visor from the floor. Blood from his earlier fall still stained its lens—the once-warm liquid had long dried, leaving a dark brown mark.

He stared at it for a moment, then said quietly, "It's time to return to the laboratory. There are more important things waiting to be verified."

The underground laboratory lights automatically came on as Lin Xiu pushed open the door, soft blue light spilling across the entire space.

A faint scent of coolant hung in the air.

He gently imported the encrypted data into an independent computing node, as though handling fragile glass.

The node's blue light reflected off his taut jaw. When the conclusion "consciousness residue" appeared on the screen, his fingertips pressed shallow dents into the console.

"A self-projection from a parallel timeline." He repeated the system analysis result to the empty air, his voice so low it sounded like he was talking to himself. "That version of me knew what would happen in the main timeline, so he left behind this data..."

"Beep—"

The armor core suddenly buzzed.

Lin Xiu looked down and saw the energy matrix on his chest armor reconstructing itself. The original blue light patterns were overlaid with gold and crimson, like lava flowing beneath ice.

The Oracle System's prompt carried an unusual tremor: "Dimensional Eye energy residue detected. Tactical Form Stage Seven triggered.

This form can maintain full combat capability for ten minutes in extreme environments. Current remaining uses: 3."

"Extreme environments..." Lin Xiu raised an eyebrow.

The moment he pressed the test button, gravity in the laboratory suddenly vanished.

A floating wrench slammed into the ceiling. The Vibranium solution in a culture dish condensed into a blue sphere of water, and even the dust in the air slowly revolved.

The sensation of weightlessness churned his stomach. He staggered and grabbed the console as Nano Armor automatically deployed stabilizing wings.

Instrument readings in his vision jumped wildly until he gritted his teeth and severed the connection between the armor and the core—the weightlessness abruptly vanished, and everything crashed back to the floor with a boom.

The sound of metal striking metal echoed through the sealed space, making his eardrums tingle.

Lin Xiu wiped the cold sweat from his temple. Just as he was about to inspect the damaged equipment, the laboratory's holographic screen suddenly lit up.

The Ancient One's image appeared in the air. Her robe was without a single wrinkle, but her gaze was deeper than ever. "You opened the Mirror Gate, child."

"Mirror Gate?" Lin Xiu took half a step back, his back pressing against the cold metal wall.

He could feel the chill from the wall seeping through his clothes into his skin.

"The you on the other side may not wish to return." The Ancient One's image began to distort like a lake disturbed by a tossed stone.

A faint current seemed to flicker through the air.

Following her gaze, Lin Xiu turned toward the full-length mirror in the laboratory corner—inside it, another version of himself stood where he had been moments ago.

That Lin Xiu wore the same tactical uniform, but bore no trace of blood. His eyes were cold as frost, and there was none of a researcher's excitement at the corners of his lips—only a certain sinister certainty of victory.

More strangely, when Lin Xiu raised his right hand, the "self" in the mirror raised his right hand as well. When he held his breath, the chest of the "person" in the mirror stopped rising and falling too.

The laboratory alarm suddenly blared, its shrill buzzing tearing through the silence.

Lin Xiu stared at the identical face in the mirror and heard the Oracle System urgently announce in his ear: "Quantum entanglement anomaly detected. Parallel consciousness is infiltrating the main timeline..."

The "Lin Xiu" in the mirror suddenly smiled.

His fingertip lightly tapped the mirror's surface, and a spiderweb of cracks spread out from the point of contact.

Lin Xiu instinctively reached for the Vibranium dagger at his waist, only to see the "self" in the mirror press his hand against the same spot the instant his fingers touched the hilt.

The cracks grew denser and denser.

Lin Xiu could hear the brittle sound of glass about to shatter, mixed with his own pounding heartbeat.

His heartbeat pounded against his temples like war drums.

He suddenly realized that when he had touched the Crystal Pyramid in Consciousness Space, the flashing images had seemed to include this very mirror—except the reflection then had shown ruins after the Battle of New York, and himself standing amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood in Apocalypse Form armor.

"Oracle, lock onto the source of the Mirror energy." His voice tightened slightly.

"Locking on... Source... full-length mirror in the main timeline laboratory... Parallel consciousness infiltration progress: 17%..."

The "Lin Xiu" in the mirror raised his hand. Just as his fingertip was about to pierce through the cracks, Lin Xiu saw a line of pale-gold writing on the inside of his wrist—it was a mark carved by Nanobots, but instead of "enter," it read "replace."

Every light in the laboratory suddenly went out.

In the darkness, Lin Xiu heard the crisp shattering of glass, mixed with the whisper of his other self, clear as if it were beside his ear: "My turn now."