Now, the question was: what existed in the Mirror World. Would it be an empty, no-living-creature dimensional space? Or, would it be filled with living-creatures? Would it be full of creatures born from the twisted reflection of humanities?
Only one way to find out...
Jack took a deep, non-existent breath. He activated the travel feature of his new [Bloody Mary's Mirror World]. And he plunged headfirst into the nearest glass window panel.
The world twisted around him, reality blurring into a kaleidoscope of inverted colors and fractured light. Then, a sudden, jarring stillness.
Information slammed into his awareness. It was a deluge of data he hadn't asked for but couldn't ignore.
Two destinations lay before him.
First was a personal Mirror Room. It was a blank canvas for his spectral whims. It was his safe space. His spectral panic room. His... new home.
And the second one was a full-blown Mirror World. It was the twisted reflection of Lotogear and beyond. It was where the fun and danger resided in a... well, not-so-perfect harmony.
"Let's try the Mirror Room first," Jack hummed to himself. He willed his spectral body to access his choice.
He materialized in his Mirror Room. Stark white walls. An oppressive silence. And the single, large mirror staring back at him. It was underwhelming, to say the least.
He spent a few minutes familiarizing himself with its sterile emptiness. But then, he decided that the real prize lay beyond this place. He stepped back into the mirror. And he was back in real world, exactly in the place he had been, before he entered the Mirror Room.
'Let's go to the real Mirror World this time.' Jack decided. Again, Jack plunged headfirst to the nearby window panel. This time he chose to access Mirror World.
He popped out in the same place. No! The air here was different. It was thick with a palpable sense of unease. The world here was also sharper, somehow. More menacing.
The buildings were the same, yet different. They were reversed, Jack quickly realized. The positioning was really mirroring the real world.
Similar to the real world, it was past midnight in the mirror world. But it seemed to be even more silent here. The oppressive silence was broken only by the drip, drip, drip of unseen water. Each drop echoed with unsettling clarity.
For a while, Jack enjoyed the novelty. He floated through the mirrored streets. He marveled at the warped geometry. And the absence of life.
It was Lotogear. But it was devoid of the bustling humanity that defined it. He ventured further. He was drawn by an inexplicable pull. He moved past the town wall.
He moved toward the mirrored countryside. Until the city could no longer be seen.
He kept moving, kept observing the surrounding. Until his awareness played loud alarm sirens on his mind.
Something terribly bad was behind him.
Jack looked back. That was when he saw it.
A hulking monstrosity standing in a mirrored field. It was bathed in the eerie glow of the reflected moonlight.
It was an Orthrus. But it was not the fantasy kind found in dusty mythology books. This was a creature of pure nightmare.
This creature was larger than a truck. Its matted, black fur was tinged with black smoke. Two snarling, drool-flecked heads were locked at Jack, like a predator looking at its prey. Dark energy radiated from it in waves, a suffocating aura of primal malevolence.
Jack knew, with a chilling certainty, that this 'thing' could hurt him. He was reminded to a certain game with nightmare level difficulty. It reminded him of a newbie character in a game facing the last-boss monster.
Jack didn't hesitate. He turned tail. He flew away, as fast as he could. Fear lent him a speed he didn't know he possessed.
The Orthrus roared. It was a sound that vibrated in Jack's very core. The ground trembled as it gave chase.
He risked a glance back. The hound was gaining. Its two heads were snapping. Its jaws dripping with something that looked like black ichor. Each bound brought it closer. The earth kept cracking beneath its massive paws.
Think, damn it, think! Jack urged himself. He needed a way to survive. Fast. Before the beast could get him. He needed to escape.
Escape! Escape from this world. That gave Jack a direction to his path of survival. He needed a reflective surface. He needed any that was big enough to punch through to the real world.
But he was on the countryside outskirt. Farm buildings flashed past. None of them had glass window though.
Jack phased into one farm house. He tried to find any mirror inside. But before he had a chance, the Orthrus Monster crashed into the house. A loud explosive sound. Things were broken and fell apart. Jack escaped.
He flew in his fastest speed. The monster was still chasing, right behind him.
Jack tried to phase underground to escape. Succeeded. He felt relieved for a while. But then, the earth above him trembled.
The Orthrus roared in unbridled fury. It tore through the the soil with demonic fervor. It refused to give up its prey.
Jack gritted his non-existent teeth. He strained his essence, trying to move further downward. He phased and sank further into the cool, dark earth.
But the earth had other plans. A low rumble vibrated through the ground. It was growing louder, closer. And it was not from above. It was from below. A presence as horrible as the Orthrus was approaching from the bottom of the earth.
Panicked, Jack moved sideway. Diagonally. Slanting upward. To the world above.
He phased across the surface of the ground and flew upward. The Orthrus noticed him and charged at him.
Jack flew higher. The ground burst in a loud explosion-like sound that shook his ectoplasm. A titanic worm, with rows upon rows of sword-like teeth, erupted upwards. This worm was even larger than the Orthrus.
This world was crazy! Jack swore. He wanted to fly higher. But he felt terrifying existence above. It felt several times more powerful than the two creatures below.
Jack dashed away, not daring to fly higher than the trees around him. The Orthrus and the Worm chased him. The frantic escape was repeated. This time with double threats behind.
Faceless Jack was exhausted mentally. But he kept flying as fast as he could. The two chasing monster had never been too far away behind. No matter what he did.
In fact, the Orthrus was now very close. It was so close that he could feel its hot, fetid breath on his non-existent skin.
One of the heads lunged, teeth snapping shut inches from his spectral form. He felt a searing pain, a chunk of his essence ripped away, leaving a jagged hole in his being.
He screamed, a silent, ethereal wail that went unheard in the desolate landscape. The pain was excruciating, a violation that shook him to his core. He had to get out.
He spotted it then. He saw a glimmer of hope in the distance.
A lake. It was a lake. Or a pond. Whatever it was, it was a body of water. He could see its surface reflecting the night sky like a distorted mirror. It was his only chance.
He poured on the speed. He pushed himself beyond his limits. The monsters behind him were relentless though. The horrifying sound of them crashing into objects behind him, urging him onwards more quickly. It was a terrifying race for survival.
He reached the lake and felt another terrible existence within that body of water. But the lake's water surface was his only chance for survival.
Without a second thought, Jack activated his [Mirror World Travel] and plunged into the reflective surface. The cold water a momentary shock before he broke through to the other side.
He phased out of the real-world lake with a gasp from his non-existent mouth. His mind was still disoriented. But he recovered his mental state within seconds.
He was back in the real world. The Orthrus was gone. The Worm was gone. They were left behind in the Mirror World.
He let out a relieved laugh with his [Banshee's Requiem]. It came out as a creepy, distorted chuckle. But Jack didn't care. He survived. That was what mattered.
Jack floated above the lake for a long moment, His spectral form flickering weakly. He was shaken and weakened. He lost a piece of himself. He could recover, fortunately. But it would take a while.
The Mirror World was not the adventurous playground he had imagined. It was a dangerous, unpredictable place. It teemed with horrors beyond his comprehension.
He needed to be careful. He needed to get stronger. Adventure could wait. Survival came first.
The chill of the night nipped at Jack. Though as a ghost, he shouldn't have felt it. Still, the peculiar sensation was there. It was probably a faint echo of the cold he'd known in life. Or of the horror he had just experienced.
Whatever it is, it awakened him from his contemplation. Jack looked at his surrounding. He was drifting above a lake. Its surface was a dark mirror reflecting the twin moons and the star-pricked canvas of the night.
That was right. Twin moons. He never cared about this fact before. But it reminded him that this was not his previous Earth. Despite the many similarities he encountered here, this was not the past of the Earth he was familiar with.
Jack snapped back to his observation. The countryside sprawled around the lake. It was a silent tapestry in the shades of black. It should be an artwork woven with the dark greens and browns of fields and forests. But the night took colors from the nature.
He had no idea where he was. Lotogear, a sprawling city of steam and gears, felt like a distant dream. He didn't know where it is. He couldn't even discern east from west.
Not that it truly mattered. A restless energy had been bubbling within him recently. It was a yearning to escape the city's grim, polluted atmosphere.
This place, wherever it was, would be his new beginning.
An owl hooted in the distance. Its mournful call carrying across the still water. Fireflies, tiny beacons of light, danced above the banks of the lake. Their ephemeral glow painting fleeting patterns on the darkness.
Jack observed them with a detached curiosity. For the rest of the night, he didn't want to be the Harbinger of Vengeance. Tonight, and probably a few nights afterward, he would be a silent observer in the grand theatre of the night.