Mystic Arts Dual System

Chapter 7

The chamber opened like a wide stone bowl. Dark walls curved upward, smooth and cold, until they disappeared into shadow.

The floor was made of black stone, cracked with thin silver lines that pulsed slowly, like a distant heartbeat beneath their feet.

A pale ring of light hovered high above. Shadows stretched long across the floor, shifting as the light trembled.

Something moved in the space between the floor and the ceiling. At first, it looked like mist caught in still air.

Thin strands drifted lazily, pale one moment and dark the next, twisting around each other as if pulled by an unseen tide.

When they brushed the stone, tiny sparks jumped and vanished. When two strands touched, they snapped apart with a sharp hiss.

Merlin slowed to a stop

“…That’s Etherium,” he said quietly.

Merlin stopped at the edge as he crouched with his fingers hovering over a trembling strand.

“Etherium fields,” he said quietly. “It’s raw untamed magic. It reacts to our polarities.”

Eldridge snorts behind him. “You sound like you’ve never seen it.”

“I haven’t,” Merlin answered. He didn’t sound scared, only interested. He leaned in a little, watching how the strands slid along the silver veins.

Ryn frowns. “Then how do you know what to do?”

Merlin’s hand hovered above the glow. “I’ve read about it. A lot.” He traces a slow circle with his finger, seeing if the flow changes.

A flicker runs under his skin, a pulse beneath the strand, but it doesn’t surge the way the books promised.

Callie stepped closer, eyes fixed on the twisting energy.

“But this isn’t shaped. You’ve never handled it like this. How can you even touch it?”

Merlin watched the flow without moving, the faint glow of Light already responding around his hands.

“I don’t need to start from nothing,” he said. “Light is Etherium that’s been given direction.”

Ryn frowned. “So this is the same thing?”

“The same source,” Merlin replied. “Just without rules yet.”

Eldridge scoffed. “And that helps you how?”

Merlin shifted his hand slightly. The energy leaned with the motion.

“Because I already know how it feels when it moves,” he said. “I just don’t know how hard it’ll push back.”

Eldridge gave a one-shoulder shrug. “Words. We need action. Move.”

Before anyone can answer, the Etherium lashed out as a rope of braided light and shadow shooting sideways.

It hits Ryn in the chest and slams him into the stone wall. The sound of his body hitting stone echoes through the hall.

“Ryn!” Callie screamed and threw up a Shield Bind. The radiant barrier catched some of the shock, but not enough. Ryn slid down the wall, breathing hard.

Merlin moved without panic. He dropped to his knees beside Ryn. His hands glowed with a soft, uneven mix of light and shadow..more trial than muscle memory.

“Don’t move,” Merlin said. “Tell me what you feel.”

“Hot. Burning, then cold,” Ryn coughed. “Pressure like pins.”

Merlin dropped to one knee beside Ryn, eyes flicking across the Etherium strands, feeling their chaotic push and pull. His hands hovered over Ryn, light and shadow trembling along his fingers.

[Notice: Polarity Shift Detected. Host’s Emotional Balance: Strained]

“Wow… does this mean I can sense things I haven’t learned yet? If I can sense it… maybe I can guide it. Let me try.”

He let the energy flow. Pale light and shadow spiraled from his hands, brushing over Ryn, smoothing the Etherium’s pulse.

[Passive Skill Activated: Shadow Radiance — stabilizing field deployed]

The glow steadied. Ryn’s chest rose and fell more slowly, his pulse settling.

“Yes… it worked.” Merlin’s stomach tightened with quiet excitement, a rush of relief he kept to himself.

“I… I think I’m okay,” Ryn whispered, shivering.

Eldridge cuts her off. “Stupid dude..always wasting efforts.. you should've left him. Dead weight slows us down.”

Merlin straightens. “Funny. I didn’t realize cowardice was part of your skill set. Go ahead….abandon him. See how far you get without a team carrying your lazy ass.”

Eldridge snarled and charged forward. He pushed through the Etherium like a battering ram, sending precise waves of Light to part the trembling strands.

Sparks leapt and hiss where the light hit the silver veins.

“Jerk,” Callie muttered.

He followed Eldridge, stepping between the ropes of Etherium. The strands press at him like a current. Too forceful, and the Etherium lashes out; too careful, and the threads close up like a trap. Each footfall matters.

Ryn stumbles over a dark tendril. Without thinking, Merlin reaches and steadies him. “Keep your balance. Don’t rush.”

“You’re doing this like you’ve done it before,” Ryn said, rubbing his shoulder.

“I’ve read every book in the library I could find,” Merlin said quietly.

They climbed the narrow stone platforms rising amid the writhing energy, forcing them to step in a single file. Sparks spit as strands brush the walls.

Callie’s light cuts through the gloom and shows paths clear enough to cross. Eldridge moved ahead, ignoring the occasional backlash that sprayed him with static.

The veins thin at last and open into a carved archway. Beyond, a cool glow hums. Merlin’s lips tighten. “Next stage,” he says. “Be ready. This is where it gets serious.”

The mirrored glass in the arch began to ripple. Their reflections lag by a heartbeat, as if the hall is half a second behind the world. Then four figures step out of the panels like they’re leaving a pond.

Each one in the team, only better. Callie’s twin stood taller.

Ryn’s copy looked different, like he’s been trained for years.

Eldridge's mirrored version had absolute confidence. Merlin’s mirror wore black-and-gold armor.

Callie takes a step back. “They’re…better.”

“How are we supposed to fight that?” Ryn’s voice trembles. He looks small in the wide hall.

“Carefully,” Merlin says. He watches his mirror like a student watches a master. He isn’t afraid, only surprised—surprised that the copies move without the awkwardness he knows in himself.

Callie lunged first as she threw her Light Chains with a shout, “Divine Scatter!”

Her mirror blocked the strike and replied with a counter that was too clean, too fast. Callie barely parried and staggered.

“See?” Eldridge jeered “We should have left Ryn—”

Merlin cuts him off without looking. He ducked under a swift arm from his mirror-self and felt the blow graze his shoulder.

For a beat his hand trembled as he was not as quick as the image in front of him.

He retaliated clumsily and unrefined. It’s not the precise burst he pictured in books, but it connected. The mirror staggers for the first time as Callie gasps.

“You hit it,” she took a breath.

“I did,” Merlin said, breathless. He straightened his breath quickly, adjusting his stance. “They assume we’ll act the way we always did. They don’t expect changes mid-motion.”

Ryn, still rubbing his ribs, watched Merlin,

“How do you know how to do that? You just… did something different.”

Eldridge roared and sent Judgment Spears slamming through the hall. One hits Ryn’s mirror and shatters it cleanly. For half a second everyone breathed out.

Then the mirror reassembles, shining and whole as if the crack had never happened.

Ryn freezed. “It… it’s back.”

“That’s the trap,” Merlin said “They rebuild from the panels. Don’t fight near the mirrors.”

Callie nodded, “Good call. Why didn’t we—”

Merlin’s face tightened. He misjudged a step and his boot scraped across the silver vein. The Etherium bites and a sting runs up his leg.

He swore under his breath, then readjusted, slower this time, watching how the ropes pulse after each strike.

Eldridge barked, “Stop explaining shit and hit it!”