Chapter 13 – The Mirror Cultivation Realm
By IMERPUS RELUR
--
After the Sixth Watcher vanished, silence lingered—not as emptiness, but as space.
A space left intentionally… for something to arrive.
Auren knew.
Something always came after a revelation.
But this time, it wasn't a threat.
It was an invitation.
---
Notification:
> [Access Granted: Mirror Cultivation Realm]
This plane is sealed to all gods who fear their own reflections.
Entry requires a soul that has remembered pain beyond self.
> Entry Authorized: Auren Ixiel
---
Eléa touched his arm.
> "No one has returned from that place unchanged," she warned.
"It shows not the future… but the truth you're avoiding."
Auren nodded.
> "Then I must go."
---
Location Entered: Mirror Cultivation Realm
He stepped through.
And immediately—he saw himself.
But not just a reflection.
Across endless crystal floors, thousands of Aurens stood.
Some weeping.
Some laughing.
Some covered in blood.
Some alone.
They were versions of him—paths unchosen, memories unlived, wounds unopened.
The realm pulsed.
> "This is the plane where cultivation is not of energy," the voice said,
"but of acceptance."
Auren stepped forward.
One mirror shimmered, revealing a version of him standing atop burning ruins, draped in a black cloak, eyes hollow, wielding the Tearblade—not as healer, but as executioner.
> "I became a god who forced others to remember through pain," it said.
"And they feared me until I forgot myself."
Another mirror glowed.
It showed Auren as a savior of a thousand worlds—worshipped, praised, bowed to by all.
> "I became the perfect god," this one whispered, "and no longer understood pain.
I lost the reason I began."
And then one mirror… cracked open.
Auren looked into it and saw—
Himself. Now.
But there was something else reflected behind him.
A door.
A door with no handle.
No markings.
Just a single glyph: ❖
---
Auren turned away from the other mirrors.
He walked toward the door.
The realm trembled.
> "No god has ever chosen the true reflection," the voice warned.
"Behind it lies no glory, no worship… only your root."
> "Then that's where I'm going," Auren said, placing his hand on the ❖.
---
Inner Cultivation Achieved:
> Path: Mirror Sutra – Root of the Rememberer
You no longer grow by gaining power… but by shedding denial.
New Trait: "Transparent Self"
Other gods cannot hide intent, emotion, or false memories from you.
You automatically awaken sealed truths within divine relics and beings simply by standing near them.
---
The mirror realm shattered—not in destruction, but in completion.
Auren stood once again in his own domain.
Eléa looked at him differently—not with awe, but with recognition.
> "You saw yourself," she whispered.
Auren nodded.
> "And I still chose to be me."
---
High above, the seventh Watcher blinked.
This one had no eye—only a mirror across its face.
And for the first time, the mirror reflected nothing at all.
Except… Auren.