Secret World: I Became a God Through Lies

Chapter 478 The Trial in Mirror Lake
"In the mirror, all truths are reflected, and all lies are amplified."

He who judges others will ultimately judge himself.

—The Book of Reflections: Fragments of Sazeroth

The raging flames were like a sea, tearing the night sky apart.

The vengeful necromancer roared as it plummeted along the chains, as if it would burn the entire park to the ground.

Flames scorched the air, and iron chains transformed into a thousand venomous snakes, coiling around and rushing towards the Fate Master in mid-air.

The white clown mask of the God of Destiny reflected the raging flames. He smiled slightly, raised his hand, and opened the long-dusted, absurd book: "The Book of Lies."

"All lies eventually become the truth."

The whisper was uttered softly, like a pebble falling onto the surface of a lake.

The next instant, the entire night sky trembled. The Star Calamity card of the Fate Master ignited with a dim light, and its value plummeted—[Star Calamity Value: 1203 → 1097].

The raging fire tore open, but it was as if it had crashed into an invisible mirror, reflecting the flames back into the night sky, as if the world itself was rejecting this fury.

—A mirror surface is being created.

Si Ming lowered his eyes, his thoughts drifting back to a past event that he had deliberately suppressed deep in his memory.

The Alleston disaster.

On that level, numerous mystery masters gathered together, all for the purpose of sealing away an indescribable being.

Reflection King Sazeros.

Its body is pieced together from thousands of shattered mirrors, and every breath it takes is like the world breaking apart and rebuilding itself.

The lake exists because of it, and the lake dies because of it.

All who witnessed it either went mad or fell into the abyss of the mirror.

Ultimately, they used the cost of a city's destruction to forcibly impale Sazarus beneath the Mirror Lake.

Only Si Ming, under the cover of the Thousand Faces, left a trace in his own lies—"the Imprint of Mirror Lake".

Now, that lie has become reality.

The ground beneath their feet quietly collapsed, and a lake slowly emerged from the darkness.

The lake surface was spotless, as if pieced together from countless shattered mirrors, reflecting the raging fire and chains overhead.

Above and below the lake, reality and its reflection unfold simultaneously.

A shadow came stepping on the water.

It was a deer, but it had no flesh and blood; its skeleton and body were made up of countless floating mirrors.

The antlers resemble forked crystal swords, each swing reflecting fragments of hundreds and thousands of worlds.

Its steps were extremely light, rippling the water, yet simultaneously creating a reflection on the other side.

"Sazarras".

Si Ming whispered, standing on Mirror Lake, as a phantom in yellow robes drew back like a curtain.

Reality and reflection overlap, making the whole world seem like an absurd stage play.

The vengeful undead roared and swung its chains, unleashing a devastating surge of fiery energy. But the moment the chains touched the lake's surface, they split into two:
One path falls into reality, the other into the reflection. The self in the reflection is bound by itself.

The lake was cold and the night sky was broken.

The trial of the world of reflections has officially begun.

The mirror-like lake ripples.

Before the flames of evil fire even touched the God of Fate, they reflected a crimson hue on the water's surface.

The vengeful undead in the reflection is exactly the same as its original form, riding on that motorcycle pieced together from bones and ashes, with chains flying like venomous snakes.

It roared, and the chain lashed down, wrapping heavily around the reflection's body.

The vengeful necromancer in reality roared deafeningly, its eyes suddenly blazing with the light of judgment.

That's its strongest killing move, [Judgment of Sinful Flames], which guarantees death once it locks onto a target.

But on the lake's surface, another pair of identical fiery pupils were staring directly at it.

It is judging its own reflection.

The voice of the God of Fate echoed across the lake, carrying a kind of ironic tenderness:
"The reflection bears witness to your sins. Are you judging it? No... you are judging yourself."

boom--

In an instant, the power of judgment backfired. The raging flames surged back from the world of reflection into reality, like an explosive, surging current.

The flames burning on the Necromancer's Armor suddenly reversed, igniting itself.

The eyes on the chains suddenly closed, as if forced to admit: sin originates from oneself.

Its roar tore through the night sky, and evil flames exploded on its body, shattering its armor, scattering its bones, and scorching deep cracks.

The God of Fate, however, flickered like points of light on the surface and bottom of the lake.

The Realm Walker – [Dimensional Flash].

He appeared on the surface of the lake in reality in an instant, and the raging fire almost brushed past him;

The next second, he disappeared into the world of reflections, like a blurry phantom, passing behind the undead.

The vengeful necromancer swung his chains, but only struck his own reflection.

The raging fire exploded with a deafening roar, but only burned away the illusory water ripples.

It grew increasingly violent, its chains whipping into a sky-covering iron net, attempting to burn the entire lake surface.

Si Ming stood in the center of the lake, the firelight reflected in his white clown mask.

He chuckled softly, as if he were a director watching an absurd drama:

"Foolish soul... How can you talk about revenge when you can't even distinguish the enemy?"

With a slight movement, his figure merged into the reflected world, leaving only a ripple.

The vengeful undead suddenly opened its eyes of judgment, its roar shaking the heavens and earth, but what met it on the lake was a pair of equally fiery and wrathful eyes.

The trial became a complete self-destruction.

The roar of the vengeful necromancer seemed to tear the entire night sky apart.

It no longer wields its chains, no longer pursues the God of Fate.

The evil fire surged wildly in its chest cavity, the cracks in its armor, and the bones of its wheels.

It was as if a burning heart had been forcibly ignited, and the overflowing flames engulfed its entire body.

It raised its head, and the light of its Eye of Judgment transformed into two fiery suns, gazing coldly and resolutely at the lake.

"—Then let reality and its reflection both be buried in the flames of betrayal!" Boom!!!

An eruption of raging fire.

It was not just a simple fire, but a calamity that engulfed the heavens and the earth.

The neighborhood suddenly shattered, and Mirror Lake instantly boiled and churned, with the lake surface and its reflection burning simultaneously.

Both up and down, right and wrong, were pierced by the sea of ​​fire.

The raging fire expanded like a nuclear explosion, its blazing white light spreading out before the heatwave, illuminating streets several kilometers away.

The large trees in the park turned to ashes in an instant, the stone bridge collapsed, and the statues shattered into dust.

Even the air was burned away, leaving a vacuum-like silence, followed by a deafening explosion.

The figure of the God of Fate flickered in the raging flames, like a moth whose light was swallowed up.

He appeared on the edge of the real inferno in an instant, and on the scorched earth of his reflection the next second.

No matter where they flashed, the raging fire had already covered the entire world at the same time, leaving no way to escape.

For the first time, despair was reflected in the eyes behind the mask.

The intense heat tore through his coat, and flames almost licked his face.

His flickering trajectory was distorted by the flames, making his speed seem futile.

The world seemed to have become a fiery abyss, with no place to stand.

The vengeful undead stood in the center of the sea of ​​fire, like a god consumed by hatred, emitting a deep, soul-shaking roar.

Si Ming was forced to the center of the lake, where raging flames surrounded him from all sides.

Despair flickered for a moment beneath his mask.

This time, he's really finished.

The raging flames spread across the sky, but suddenly stopped in the next instant.

Like a film reel suddenly reversing, the expanding trajectory of the flames gradually recedes, and the incandescent white light is forcibly pushed back to the fire source.

The scene between heaven and earth was distorted; the flames seemed to be rewound by an invisible hand; the burned streets were solidified again; and even the broken lake stones were pieced back together.

Strange ripples spread across the lake's surface.

The Fate Master sat atop the back of the elk—Sazarras—composed of countless mirrors.

The sound of deer hooves falling on the lake surface made a soft cracking sound, splashing fragments of reflection with each step.

Around the lake, countless illusory "fate-keepers" simultaneously appeared: some standing on the shore, some hanging upside down in the water, some half-submerged in flames, and some holding playing cards and laughing.

Reality and reflection intertwine, making it difficult to distinguish between truth and falsehood.

The voice of the God of Fate echoed softly in the heart of the lake, like a narrator on a stage:

"The flicker just now was not an escape, but a guidance."

"I lead you to wander between reality and reflection, making you lose your way. Until you—forget where you are."

The vengeful necromancer roared in fury, its chains of fire sweeping across, but it only shattered the mirror and the illusion.

The Fate God in the center of the lake, however, was unharmed.

He raised his hand, the white clown mask gleaming in the reflection of the infernal flames, like a cold laugh.

"In the world of reflections, everything is the opposite of reality."

"Your wrath stems from betrayal, but here it is transformed into—trust."

As soon as he finished speaking, a blinding holy light suddenly burst forth from the lake.

The evil fire was extinguished, hissing as if grease had been extinguished by holy water.

The vengeful necromancer roared in agony, its fiery armor cracking, but then the roar abruptly distorted.

Its roar, swallowed by Mirror Lake, reflected back from the other side, turning into—a low prayer.

The black flames transformed into golden light, and the chains of fire wrapped around him, like the chains of a penitent.

Countless phantoms, the "Destiny Masters," chanted softly, their voices echoing across the lake, intertwining with the roars of vengeful undead to create an absurd hymn.

Si Ming raised his eyes, his gaze cold and sharp, and said in a calm voice:
"Wandering undead, your revenge is meaningless. Betrayal has been erased, what are you still complaining about?"

"Return to hell."

The lake surface suddenly cracked open, like countless mirrors shattering at the same time.

The mirrors collapsed, light and shadow returned to silence, the illusion of Sazarras dissipated, leaving only fragments of light floating in the air.

The vengeful necromancer staggered and knelt in the gap between its reflection and reality, its vengeful fire raging violently in its chest one last time, only to be gradually stripped away by the holy light.

It reached out as if trying to grasp something, but its palm pierced through the air and could only scoop up nothingness.

The roar gradually choked, turning into a low chant, and finally dissipated.

Armor, motorcycles, fire chains... everything seemed to have been stripped of its meaning by Mirror Lake, collapsing into light and ashes.

Only a mysterious card remained, floating silently on the ground.

The card features a black background with fire patterns, depicting a knight shrouded in flames, yet his forehead is pierced by a mark of holy light.

—High-level life form mystery: "Betrayal of the Fiery Blaze: Vengeful Necromancer".

Si Ming slowly bent down and picked up the card with his fingertips.

The residual heat of the flame still danced on the paper, like a heart that had not yet cooled.

He lowered his eyes to read the card name, a hint of mockery gleaming from the cracks in his white clown mask.

Betrayal? Trust? Revenge?

Si Ming chuckled softly, his voice low and languid:
"...Whether it's a lie or the truth, who cares?"

He casually tossed the card into his sleeve and turned to leave.

Footsteps echoed through the silent ruins, lonely yet resolute.

Behind them, the fragments intertwined with light and evil fire were completely extinguished, as if they had never existed.

Only a lingering, scorching scent remained in the air, like a revenge elegy that would never be written.

"Mortals fear mirrors because mirrors do not lie."

But on the throne of lies, even a mirror can only learn to deceive.

—From the surviving manuscript of "The Man in Yellow," page 13

(End of this chapter)