I Can Copy Curses

Chapter 112: 112. Mirror Portals

Orion activated his sub-ability, Curse Transformation, with the curse of Frozen Torment, causing his left arm to completely freeze. The icy transformation spread rapidly, encasing his arm in a layer of frost and imbuing it with the chilling power of the curse.

"Everyone step back a little."

He warned the others as he moved forward and arrived in front of the mirrors.

'Let's see how it goes.'

With all the strength he could muster, he punched the ground near the mirrors. The impact sent shockwaves through the cave, causing the ground to tremble and crack.

As he exerted his force, he unleashed the power of the Frozen Torment curse, sending tendrils of frost racing across the ground and towards the mirrors.

Wherever the layer of frost went, it froze everything, be it the ground or the mirrors. It completely encased the mirrors in a solid sheath of ice, rendering them inert.

"It worked!"

Orion exclaimed as he saw his ice completely freeze all the mirrors blocking their path.

"Now, we just have to destroy the ice, and the mirrors inside them will break with it," Lisa clapped in celebration.

"That's one way to bypass a trap, I guess," the masked girl also nodded.

Crack—

However, it was only a moment later that their excitement washed away as the layer of frozen ice unexpectedly shattered into pieces, revealing the reflections of their disappointed faces on these mirrors.

"The ice shattered!" Lisa exclaimed. Others were also shocked to see that the ice encasing the mirrors shattered into broken shards while the mirrors themselves remained intact.

"It's still fine," Orion said sadly, looking at the surface of the mirrors, which didn't seem to have any effect on them even after he had fully frozen them.

"Let's go and search for the correct mirror," the masked girl said, walking towards the mirrors. "Breaking the trap itself is impossible, it seems. We can only pass right through it."

Orion nodded as he followed her. He felt that since ice couldn't even scratch the surface of all those mirrors, the other curses probably wouldn't be effective either.

The resilience of the mirrors suggested that they were protected by something much more powerful than what even a full-blown attack from a silver-rank or even a gold-rank individual could achieve.

Soon, everyone arrived in front of those mirrors and was only a step away from entering the domain of mirrors.

"Let's go," the masked girl said as she took the first step into the mirror world.

Her body went inside the mirror she stepped into and disappeared, only to reappear at a different mirror on the left side of the cave wall. But strangely enough, her body didn't fall from the mirror attached to the wall.

If normally one were to suddenly appear from the side walls, they would fall to the ground because of gravity, but the masked girl stood there on the surface of the mirror as if the gravity was reversed or had no effect on her.

"How are you standing there?" Orion asked her, seeing this.

"I don't know," she said, shaking her head. "It only feels like I am on the ground and can choose any mirrors around myself to go in there."

Orion nodded. He then turned his attention to all the others here.

"Let's go as well," he said, as he also stepped onto one of the mirrors on the ground, causing his body to sink into the mirror.

Almost instantly, he reappeared in the mirror at the ceiling of the cave. Defying gravity, he stood there effortlessly, his reflection mingling with the myriad of images around him.

After him, everyone else stepped into the world of mirrors and found themselves appearing in different parts of the domain of mirrors, standing effortlessly at odd angles.

The disorienting reflections and shifting perspectives made it difficult to discern up from down, and the entire scene felt like a surreal, fragmented reality where the usual rules of physics no longer applied. Each person had to navigate this bewildering space, unsure of where the next mirror might lead them.

"Everyone, let's check each mirror as quickly as possible," Orion said, looking at everyone.

They nodded and stepped onto the mirrors beside them, causing their bodies to sink in completely, only to appear at different parts of the mirrored domain.

Orion also moved to another mirror and disappeared into it. A moment later, his body reappeared at the bottom mirror placed on the ground. Seeing that, he again moved to another mirror and disappeared into it too, only to reappear at different parts of the mirror domain.

Like that, Orion and his group continued this over and over again. They passed through mirrors after mirrors for hours before they came to a halt. Exhausted and disoriented, they paused to catch their breath and take stock of their surroundings.

Sweat trickled down their brows as they lay down on the surface of the mirror they just resurfaced on.

"If we go on like this, it will take us forever to find the right mirror," Ryfin complained at that moment.

"You are right," Lisa, agreeing with Ryfin, said to everyone. "There are hundreds of mirrors, if not more, placed here, and it's very difficult to find the right one."

"The most difficult task for us is to determine which mirrors we have already traveled to so that we won't go into the same mirrors and waste our time," the masked girl said. "However, all the mirrors here looks exactly the same, and the shifting perspective of standing at different angles along the walls and ceiling did little to no help; instead, it only worsened our situation even more."

Others nodded at her opinion, thinking she had pointed out the most difficult task they would have to do to find the correct mirror.

Everyone turned to look at Orion, seeking his opinion, but they were shocked to find that he was looking at them as if he had seen a ghost. His expression was one of disbelief and horror, his eyes wide with shock. It was as if he had witnessed something beyond comprehension, something that had shaken him to his core.

"What happened, Orion?" The masked girl asked with concern.

"Don't you guys see yourself in the mirrors?" He asked with a trembling voice.

As he asked them, everyone looked into the mirror and saw their reflection, but they didn't find anything different.

"What are you talking about?" The masked girl asked again, turning to Orion.

Orion trembled a little as he saw them appear fine after they looked at their reflections in the mirrors.

'Am I also like them?'

He thought as he turned to look at all the reflections of himself in the mirrors and saw that he appeared fine, just like they thought they were fine.

'No, I am not like them. I can tell the difference, but they can't. Whatever the mirrors did, they didn't affect me or couldn't affect me because of my original curse—Null Body.'

He thought as he looked at the faces of everyone here. Their faces appeared as though they were in their thirties, with beards and moustaches on the boys, while wrinkles appeared on Lisa's face as if she had suddenly turned old.

He couldn't see through the mask of the masked girl, but he bet she was in the same situation as them.

'It's not permanent, right?'

Orion dreaded thinking about this. If their condition were to be permanent, then he didn't know how they would react if they were to come out of this mirror domain.

'It only took them an hour or so to age significantly in the mirrored domain. So, what would happen if we were trapped in here for much longer?'

The thought sent a shiver down Orion's spine.