So stories claim Miramor was the strongest of the Dukes. Stronger even than Campe.
What made him dangerous was not raw strength, but a rare and terrifying ability.
Long ago, when a Primordial God dared to experint with pure, unstable Primordial Energy, the result was his own destruction. His body broke apart, his divine core shattered, his power scattered like ash in a storm.
No god touched it. No mortal or monster dared.
But sothing else did.
A ghost without a na, without a face.
That ghost touched the dying energy and changed forever.
And evolved into a new being.
Since then, Miramor beca the only being in the Underworld capable of wielding illusions at a divine level, paired with the ability to nullify the powers of even a God-King.
Now, Hades was hunting him.
---
Finding the temple wasn't easy.
Hecate had told him it was hidden sowhere in the ruins of an unknown deity's shrine. The problem is Miramor could wrap the entire place in illusions so perfect that even gods would walk past without noticing.
Hades scoured the western badlands for hours. Nothing but stone, sand, and dust storms. Every ti he thought he saw sothing a column, a spire. It dissolved when he approached.
Finally, he called on his Divinity of secret. In a mont, his vision sharpened. The faint outline of a structure shimred in the distance like heat haze.
He flew toward it. Sand hissed under his boots when he landed.
A single step forward and the illusion peeled away.
The Miramor Temple stood there, ancient and suffocating. Its once-grand pillars lay broken. Statues were faceless, their heads shattered. Vines crawled across cracked marble.
Hades felt it imdiately, the heavy, suffocating dampening of his divinity like sothing restraining them.
"What!? What is happening?"
A focused breath told him the truth, this place is wrapped in a Nulification field. His power is weakened; now he can only use his divine energy and a little bit of divinity.
"I have to be extra careful. As I have a feeling this expedition is not normal as it seems."
He drew his spear and uncoiled his chain. Wings shifted behind him, ready to spring.
The air grew cold. A giggle too high-pitched to be human, a shadow slipped through the hall.
"This being has a wicked personality," Hades muttered.
The first corridor is split into two. No signs, no clues.
"Alright, now which way do I go?"
"Let's decide by way of luck"
He takes out a gold coin from nowhere and tosses it high.
"Heads left, tails right."
Coin drops while facing heads.
He went left.
Minutes later, another fork. Another coin toss.
That's when the first white blur lunged at him. He skewered it with a single strike. It let out a shriek before bursting into mist.
More ca.
The first wave fell to quick spear thrusts and chain strikes. The second wave was different his weapons passed right through them.
"What!?"
Claws swiped at his neck. He raised his wings up to block, but the impact never ca, and even the ghost disappeared.
"…Illusion."
He exhaled sharply, breaking the false image. His spear was buried in the wall, the point sunk deep into stone.
From then on, he had to question every sight and sound.
Sotis the ghosts were solid, forcing him to block and counter. Sotis they vanished the mont he struck. He learned to strike only after confirming the pressure in the air, real attacks left ripples, illusions didn't.
It wore on him. The constant second-guessing, the deliberate pace, the tension in his shoulders.
At one turn, a ghost's claws raked so close they took a strand of his hair. Another ti, he thought he saw an open exit, until it folded inward like paper.
And still, the corridors kept coming.
Eventually, Hades stopped dead in his tracks. Sothing felt… familiar.
The wall to his left had a long vertical crack in it.
He pushed forward. Fought through two more ghost attacks. Found himself back at another fork. Choose the left path.
There it was again the sa cracked wall.
He scowled. "No. I've seen this before. This is the sa damn place."
He walked back the way he ca and arrived at the sa crack again.
He was trapped.
Not just in an illusion, but in an endless loop.
His first thought was to break the walls. Smash his way out. But if Miramor could warp reality like this, there was no guarantee brute force would work.
"Calm down," he told himself. "If this is his illusion, then he's feeding on my reactions. The more I act, the more fuel he gets."
He dropped to the floor, crossing his legs.
"Then I'll stop acting."
Eyes closed. Breathe steady. He began to ditate.
He shut out every ghostly sound, every flicker of movent. His spear lay across his lap.
Minutes passed. The air around him shifted. The whispers faded. The floor under him felt… thinner.
When he opened his eyes, the world was still but different. The crack in the wall was gone.
He stood, spear in hand, and walked in a straight line not toward the forks, but directly toward a blank wall.
He channelled the little divine energy that the Nullification Field hadn't stripped from him. The spear glowed faintly.
With a sharp thrust, he struck.
Stone exploded outward, revealing a hidden passage.
"Finally."
The new chamber was worse. The mont he stepped inside, the floor crumbled. He fell but he instantly flared his wing just in ti.
Hades looked down and he saw that
Below dozens of ters high, razor-sharp spikes.
Suddenly, the walls and ceilings tremble, then the walls and ceilings shifted. More spikes erged. But it not only remains there slowly, slowly they are also moving closer.
"Tch."
Hades flew forward and spikes also sped up.
"Of course you do that."
He weaved through narrowing gaps, his wings almost scraping tal. The air stank of rust and blood.
A small door appeared ahead. Too small to slow down. He folded his wings mid-flight, scraping through just as the spikes almost skewered him, and dove on it.
Landing hard, he caught his breath.
"Barely made it."
The sound ca from behind, a voice that matched his own.
When he turned, another Hades stood there. Smiling.
Or at least, sothing wearing his face.
The clone spoke in his exact voice
"You think you've escaped?"
Hades narrowed his eyes. "An illusion… or a copy?"
He stepped inside.
The air grew heavier. The Nullification is stronger.
It smiled.
Hades didn't move, but his grip tightened on his spear. "So you've been watching ."
The copy tilted its head. It said nothing.
Hades stepped forward once and the door slamd shut behind him.
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