Mirror Mirror

Slippery Snail

✲꘏ ꘏ ꘏ ꘏✲_________________________________________✲꘏ ꘏ ꘏ ꘏✲

In the secret chamber, Marie is currently drawing a symbol on the ground with white chalk. She remembers what the fake gauche told her to do, they entered an area with a giant symbol in the middle, it was ingrained on the floor but it looked very faint and old; it could barely be seen.

The fake Gauche gave Marie a picture of a symbol that looked a bit different from the one on the floor. He tells her they might be here a while so Marie can replicate this symbol over the old one. "Once it's complete, a glow will emanate and give life to the chamber."

Under normal circumstances, Marie would have been very excited, but now she was wary. Marie struggled to figure out what to do as she checked the picture for the ninth time. She suddenly heard loud noises outside. She recalls the fake Gauche telling her that he would be out for a bit... But she couldn't help but feel like it she was in deep trouble. 

_________________________________________________________

"Why are you doing this? What's the purpose?"

Asta clutches the handle of his sword, pointing its blade toward the impostor. 

"The world will be consumed by the entity once it's released. It will purify everything... or something to that effect I guess."

With lowered eyes Asta steps closer, "Dont tell me you're one of those guys who do crazy things for 'good cause' or whatever! Cause' lemme tell you! Theres no way we'd let that happen!"

Luck begins to walk as well but suddenly senses danger and launches himself off the ground, avoiding a blast of water erupting from the ground.

"What the-?"

As the electro-mage finds his footing on the harsh snow, a small circular device bounces beside him.

Vanessa quickly picks it up to inspect it, "It's a magic item. Gauche must have set up traps and magical artifacts in preparation for this!"

Finral looked at the snowy terrain between them and the impostor, " I-I don't see anything but I can sense mana somewhere. I don't think we can stay on the ground for long!

*Click!*

The fake Gauche reveals a button and presses it, triggering explosions of different elemental attributes around the bulls, disorienting them. A trap activates under Charmy and Gordon, causing them to feel sleepy and pass out. Asta uses his anti-magic sword to break free, surprising the fake Gauche.

Asta sets out to free the others, but the fake Gauche summons mirrors to evade everyone near him. Then meticulously trapping them in binds, suspending them in air.

Noelle struggled against the binds, "SIMONE! We know everything, Simone. We know what happened to you and what you're trying to do."

'Simone' turned to the water mage, unfazed " Then you should also know that there's a greater entity at play. You shouldn't stop me."

"Don't get distracted!"

Asta summons his demon form and nullifies all the magic items. He confronts Simone, who tries to deflect Asta with mirrors but fails. He manages to hit Simone with the hilt of his sword, not wanting to harm his friend's body.

He then angles a swing to nullify the magic binds and free the rest of the bulls. Meanwhile, Simone realizes his mana has been depleted by the anti-magic sword.

" Huh? What happened to my mana? That sword... it drained me of my magic."

Asta smirked " Anti-magic is awesome right? But I don't need your compliments. I need answers, and I need Gauche and Marie back."