Tegrot nodded slowly.
"Yeah..."
He remained silent for a few moments, and then shrugged.
"But that's what... fourth, fifth time we witnessed the world coming to an end? I am not going to lie, watching the world end gets old pretty quickly."
Yutra laughed.
“True. But, hey, at least we're in good company this time. You know, I'm really glad to have run into you two, for some reason..."
On the other side of the Tear, Mordret and Cassie watched the cloud of arrows descend upon them while devastating cannonballs were barreling at them from the other side. The Ebony Island was much larger than the Ivory Island, and its vast and desolate expanse was currently flooded by the vessels of the King of Nothing. Cassie was in front of the great tower, standing in the runic circle she herself had carved into the weathered obsidian.
Mordret — his original vessel — was nearby, having donned a suit of intricate black armor and summoned an eerie spear with a long, leaf-shaped blade. The somber steel of the blade was polished and reflected the world upon itself, glistening dimly in the golden radiance of dawn.
Leaning on the spear, Mordret was observing the great army of humanity with an amused smile playing on his lips.
"I guess the old man wants to do things properly."
He looked at the seven figures that were arrayed in front of them, each facing him with an absent expression.
Those figures were his Reflections — each of them a Supreme Beast, at least.
Mordret created the Reflections out of his own soul cores, so each of them was born of the same Rank as him. In a sense, the process was not that different from his Transformation Ability — the ability to splinter his soul to possess multiple vessels at the same time.
However, the Reflections were independent beings. They possessed the unique ability to mirror other creatures, which Mordret himself lacked, but perhaps even more importantly than that, they could grow and evolve over the course of their lives. That meant that even if they were born the same Rank as their creator, they could rise in both Rank and Class.
In fact, they had a much easier time attaining higher Ranks than Mordret himself, because they were creatures, not humans. All they had to do was absorb the essence of other beings. The slower, much more difficult way to do so was to thoroughly reflect and embody the being they were mirroring, slowly assimilating its essence.
The easier and faster way was simply to kill living beings and absorb their spark, not too different from how humans absorbed soul fragments by shattering the souls of Nightmare Creatures, or received them directly by killing other humans.
Or how the Nightmare Creatures absorbed souls by slaughtering all living things.
That quality of the Reflections had often served Mordret in the past, allowing him to command servants more powerful than he was. However, it had become quite difficult to nurture his Reflections after he became a Supreme.
That was for one simple reason... there had been great amounts of Dormant, Awakened, Ascended or Fallen, and even Transcendent or Corrupted beings for his servants to slaughter before. However, there were very few Supreme or Great beings in the world — not enough of them to fuel the growth of the Reflections, at least, especially because the more entrenched in existence a being was, the more they benefited from destroying it.
Much like humans benefitted more when killing humans with fully saturated soul cores, as opposed to recently Awakened greenhorns.
Godgrave had few of such ancient beings left, most of them concentrated in the Spine Ocean, where even the Reflections could be easily destroyed at any moment.
That was the reason why he had failed to make any of his Reflections Sacred, and that was the reason why they were of relatively lower Classes, as well — even if the sum of the soul cores between them had far outgrown the initial seven he had sacrificed to create them.
But even as Supreme, the Reflections were an immensely powerful force.
Especially so because of how versatile they were.
Just before the cannonballs reached the Ebony Island, they exploded in the air, as if having collided with an invisible wall. The same happened to the arrows sent from the Ivory Island, and to the storm of projectiles sent from the neighboring islands.
That was because, at the moment, most of the Reflections assumed the shape of a person Cassie knew quite well — of Rivalen, the noble Saint of the Aegis Rose clan, whose power allowed him to create a wall of ethereal shields around a target or around a place he wanted to protect.
Saint Rivalen was powerful, but not powerful enough to surround the entire Ebony Island with his aegis. The Reflections working in tandem while channeling his Aspect, however?
That was an entirely different conversation. Especially because one of the Reflections — the one that existed longer than the rest, was of a higher Class than the rest, and therefore had the greatest claim at personhood than they had — was not mirroring Saint Rivalen of Aegis Rose. Instead, it was mirroring a different Saint... a far more dangerous Saint.
It was mirroring Cassie.