Capítulo 99: The mirror shard
Upon kneeling, Adrian sensed shifts in his surroundings, yet he refrained from opening his eyes, unwilling to jinx the experience as had happened in the previous instances.
Observing that the commotion had subsided, Adrian cautiously opened his eyes, only to be taken aback by what he beheld.
"Getting surprised is a constant since I came here," Adrian mused, acknowledging the recurrent state of astonishment in his experiences.
Adrian found himself seated in front of the altar, bathed in the warm rays of sunshine streaming in through the windows. The sunlight, casting a colorful hue on the temple's interior, created an ethereal and serene atmosphere.
Adrian glanced downward only to find that the stairs leading downstairs had vanished, leaving a mysterious absence where they once were.
'I think I'm starting to develop a fear of stairs leading down.'
Rising from his seated position, Adrian felt a dull ache, prompting him to recognize the prolonged duration he had spent in the same pose.
'Was everything that happened just an illusion?'
Contemplating, Adrian delved into his soul to inspect the core, seeking assurance that it was indeed a tangible reality. As he observed the familiar core floating within, a sigh of relief escaped him.
Adrian voiced his thoughts, questioning, "Setting that aside, what am I supposed to do now? It didn't resolve the fundamental issue of why I ended up here in the first place," as he surveyed his surroundings.
Adrian's words seemed to draw attention to something, and he noticed a piece of mirror resting on the previously empty altar.
Adrian picked up the mirror shard and finally looked at his reflection for the first time since arriving. His face appeared the same, but now it was covered in a black membrane that shifted like a fog.
Adrian couldn't deny that the black membrane gave his reflection a menacing appearance.
'Admittedly, I look good, but what purpose does this shard serve?'
Puzzled, Adrian examined the piece of mirror, turning it around in search of any distinctive features.
"Is this truly it? Is this what I was meant to discover?"
Still filled with doubt, Adrian retreated into the shadows. Almost instantly, the shard in his hand vanished. This occurrence puzzled him, as shadows typically didn't hinder shadow manifestors from materializing objects.
After scanning his surroundings for a few moments and finding nothing, Adrian chose to peer into his soul sea to confirm whether the shard had truly disappeared.
His concerns proved unfounded, as the shard was still present, peacefully floating beside his core within the soul sea.
Uncertain of his next course of action, Adrian willed his core to absorb the shard. As he did so, the shard began to disintegrate, merging seamlessly with the core.
Anything possessing the property of being able to exist in the soul sea seemed susceptible to absorption by the core, and that's precisely what Adrian had just accomplished.
Uncertain of the effects, Adrian ceased his focus on the soul sea, redirecting his attention elsewhere.
Surveying the shadows, Adrian noticed a lack of depth around the altar, unlike before. Observing this, he became certain that there was nothing else noteworthy present. This realization brought him back to the main issue that had been troubling him from the outset—the skinwalker.
"I suppose I'll have to confront him after all. I was optimistic about finding a relic or something here to enhance my combat abilities, but fate seems to be unkind, or should I say, Mother Gaze is."
Lost in his thoughts, Adrian made his way to the door and opened it, squinting his eyes as the sunlight flooded in.
As his eyes adjusted to the sudden light, Adrian peered outside and noticed three motionless bodies lying on the ground.
"What is it playing at now?" Adrian wondered aloud, perplexed by the scene before him.
As he descended the stairs and cautiously stepped out of the barrier, Adrian, noticing nothing from the three bodies, approached one of the vampires and kicked at it.
'Still not moving?'
Adrian couldn't help but entertain the thought that the skinwalker might be gone, given the presence of sunlight, as it was the only explanation that made sense to him.
Examining the three lifeless bodies, Adrian discerned that they were dead, their souls presumably absorbed by the skinwalker.
"I could have been one of them, but luckily, I managed to escape—or perhaps the skinwalker just couldn't do anything to me," Adrian mused, acknowledging the precarious situation he had narrowly avoided.
Lost in thought, Adrian approached the edge of the cliff, and there he discovered the remaining bodies.
"You don't have to look too hard. They're dead."
Upon hearing the words, Adrian somersaulted away from the voice. As he regained his footing, he scanned the area from where the voice had emanated, trying to identify the speaker.
"You don't have to be so uptight. We are the only remaining people from that procession," said the hairy man, covered from head to toe in hair, with only his eyes visible through the thick strands.
Spotting the hairy man, Adrian remained on edge. He hesitated to relax, harboring a lack of trust for anyone in that procession, considering the potential threat of the skinwalker.
"How did you survive, and what are you doing here?" Adrian inquired, maintaining his guard, wary of any sudden attacks from it.
"As I said before, calm down. I still have the collar on. I should be acting the way you are right now," the hairy person reassured. They parted their hair from the neck area, revealing the collar still in place, and showed it to Adrian.
Seeing the collar, Adrian eased his tension slightly, acknowledging its authenticity. However, given his recent encounter with illusions, he remained cautious and wasn't quick to trust the hairy person outright.
"Why are you here?" Adrian asked again, this time with a neutral tone, devoid of any particular emotion.
The hairy person adjusted their hair back into place and glanced at Adrian before turning their gaze down the cliff. "I ran in another direction, but the real body of that abomination was there, which forced me to flee in this direction," they explained.
Hearing the explanation, Adrian couldn't help but feel suspicious. The idea of running away from the real body of that abomination, even in the shadows, seemed dubious to him.
REFLEXIONES DE LOS CREADORES 
samandridaku
samandridaku In slivers of reflection, secrets unfold,
Mirror shards, tales yet untold.
Each fractured piece, a glimpse in time,
A shattered truth, in the glass, we find.
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