We walked down yet another endless corridor until we hit a wall-sized mirror. I stopped to adjust my glove, but Greg... Greg suddenly started acting like a patient at a psychiatric clinic on an open house day.

  First, he just waved his hands at his reflection. Then he started making faces, sticking his tongue out, and twitching as if he were being electrocuted.

  "Greg, are you an idiot?" I looked at him with unconcealed pity. "Why don't you say hello to it too, just to complete the picture."

  He stepped right up to the glass, his nose almost touching it. "What a copy... Amazing!" he muttered, ignoring my sarcasm.

  I looked at my own reflection. And froze. I blinked, but the mirrored Alastia did it a split second later. My heart skipped a beat.

  Suddenly, "Greg's" hand reached out from the mirrored surface. It grabbed the real Greg by the collar and, with superhuman strength, yanked him inside. My copy didn't lag behind—her fingers closed around my neck, dragging me into the cold depths of the glass.

  POP.

  We tumbled into a hall that was some kind of "wrong" copy of the previous one. Standing before us were our reflections. They moved synchronously, studying us with predatory curiosity.

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  Greg, instead of getting scared, suddenly burst into a fit of laughter. "Bwa-ha-ha! Look, Alastia! Mirror Tetris!"

  "Greg, you idiot, we need to mark each other somehow!" I barked, preparing a charge of Destruction. "We're going to mix up who is the original and who is this cheap knockoff!"

  Greg smirked. He slowly reached for his mask. "Easy. Watch the magic trick."

  He closed his eyes and ripped the mask off his face. Stood there for a second, and then snapped his eyelids open. "Well, let's look at the 'fake's' eyes?"

  The mirrored Greg's eyes were both ordinary, dull black. Just two dark holes without the slightest spark of life.

  The real Greg started jumping in place, poking his finger at his copy and roaring with laughter. "AHA! Chew on that! Turns out I'm unreadable after all! My system code doesn't copy, unlike yours, Alastia! You are the standard, and I am an exclusive!"

  "Why you... Greg!" I felt the venom of offense flowing through my veins. "Standard?!"

  I didn't waste time arguing. I raised my hand and discharged a powerful pulse of mana point-blank into my mirrored copy. She didn't even have time to gasp—she was simply blown to pieces, leaving nothing behind but crumbs of stone.

  Greg's fake, seeing this, did a comical little jump and... started backing away. This "master of shadows" looked scared to the point of hiccups. He covered his head with his hands and began to tremble slightly.

  "What a coward," I grimaced in disgust. "Greg, your reflection is an even more pathetic sight than you are."

  I looked around. Greg's joy didn't calm me down. On the contrary, that nasty feeling that usually precedes a grandiose failure was growing inside me.

  "Greg, shut up," I whispered, feeling the walls of the hall slowly beginning to close in. "I think something very bad is about to happen."