[BL] I Didn't Sign Up For This-Chapter 123: In Which Void Solves Problems With Lasers

I tried walking forward.

The mirrors shifted immediately, walls appearing where paths had been seconds ago, corridors opening in directions that made no geometric sense.

I could still see the others in distant reflections. Azryth looked like he was trying to navigate toward me but getting redirected by the constantly changing maze.

Mara had her scanner out, probably trying to map the impossible structure, Henrik was making notes, Ryota was moving with tactical precision that wouldn’t help when the walls literally rearranged themselves.

*This is going to take forever,* I thought to Azryth.

*Agreed. The palace is actively preventing us from reaching each other.*

I looked at my reflections, hundreds of me staring back from every angle, and tried not to think about how disorienting this was going to get.

"Void?" I called again.

"Mama!" The voice came from somewhere to my right now, closer than before.

"Can you get to me?"

A thoughtful chirp, then silence.

I waited, checking the mirrors for any sign of the small furball.

Still nothing, no reflection, no physical presence, just that cheerful voice somewhere in the maze.

Then, without warning, a beam of concentrated energy shot through the air.

Bright, precise, and absolutely devastating to mirrors.

The laser carved through glass like it was made of paper, mirrors exploded in a perfectly straight line from somewhere in the distance, shards flying outward as Void’s attack created a direct path through the impossible maze.

Glass fragments scattered across the floor, glittering in the strange light.

The beam stopped.

"Mama!" Void chirped triumphantly, and suddenly it was there, floating right in front of me, eyes bright with pride.

I grabbed it immediately, relief flooding through me. "You’re okay."

"Yes!" Void agreed cheerfully.

I looked at the destruction it had caused, a perfectly straight line of shattered mirrors leading from wherever Void had been to exactly where I was standing.

"You just blasted your way through," I said.

An enthusiastic chirp.

"That’s... actually brilliant."

Void created a sparkle, clearly pleased with itself.

I looked at the small furball, then at the maze of mirrors still surrounding us, then back at Void.

"Can you do that again? Toward Azryth?"

*Riven?* Azryth’s mental voice came through immediately. *Was that Void?*

*Yes. It lasered straight through the mirrors to reach me.*

*Can it reach me the same way?*

I felt through the binding, finding the direction where Azryth’s presence was strongest.

"There," I told Void, pointing. "Break the mirrors that way."

Void’s eyes brightened, and another laser beam shot out.

More glass exploded, more mirrors shattered, another perfectly straight path carved through the palace in the direction I’d indicated.

The destruction was immediate and thorough.

When the beam stopped, I could see Azryth through the wreckage, standing in what had been a distant corridor but was now directly connected to where I stood.

I moved forward carefully, avoiding the worst of the shattered glass. Azryth did the same, navigating around sharp edges with the kind of care that suggested neither of us wanted to explain how we got killed by stepping on broken mirrors.

We met in the middle of the pathway, and his arms wrapped around me immediately, solid and real and exactly what I needed after being separated in an impossible maze.

"That was unpleasant," I said into his shoulder.

"Extremely," he agreed, hand moving to the back of my neck. "Are you hurt?"

"No. You?"

"I’m fine."

Void made a pleased sound from where I was still holding it. "Mama! Papa!"

Azryth went very still.

I pulled back enough to see his face, watched surprise flicker across his expression before something softer replaced it.

"Papa," he repeated quietly, looking at Void with an expression I couldn’t quite read.

Void chirped happily and created sparkles. "Papa!"

"That’s lovely new," I said.

"Yes," Azryth said, still watching Void with that same soft look. "It is."

He reached out carefully, touching Void’s surface with gentle fingers, and I felt warmth through the binding that had nothing to do with demon power.

"Thank you for the rescue," he told Void.

An enthusiastic chirp.

I pulled back enough to look at him. "We still need to find the others."

"I can see them in the mirrors," Azryth said, scanning the reflections around us. "But I don’t know which directions are real."

I looked at the maze of glass, at the distant reflections of Mara, Henrik, and Ryota all trapped in their own sections.

Then I looked at Void.

"Can you break all the mirrors?" I asked.

Void tilted slightly, considering.

"All of them," I clarified. "Just destroy everything so we can actually reach each other."

"Yes!" Void chirped excitedly.

"Do it."

What followed was the most efficient demolition I’d ever witnessed.

Void’s laser beams shot out in every direction, carving through the palace with systematic precision, mirrors exploded in cascading waves of destruction, glass rained down like deadly snow, the entire structure began fragmenting under the assault.

And in the distance, I heard voices.

"What’s happening?!" Mara’s voice, strained with panic.

"Riven?! Azryth?!" Henrik shouted.

"Is everyone okay?!" Ryota called out, fear clear in his tone.

They couldn’t see us through the chaos, didn’t know what was causing the destruction, probably thought something was attacking and people were dying.

"We’re fine!" I shouted back. "It’s Void! We’re all fine!"

I pulled Azryth close, his power manifesting around us in a protective barrier against the falling shards.

The destruction continued for what felt like minutes but was probably only seconds.

When it finally stopped, the palace looked like a war zone.

Shattered glass covered every surface, broken mirrors lay in heaps, the walls that remained were more hole than structure, and through the wreckage, I could see actual people instead of distant reflections.

Mara was visible about fifty yards away, hunter gear apparently sturdy enough to protect her from the worst of the destruction, but her face was pale, scanner shaking slightly in her hands.

Henrik was to our left, emerging from behind a pile of shattered mirrors with his tablet still somehow intact, but his usual calm was notably strained.

Ryota was behind us, weapon drawn, eyes wide as he stared at the devastation.

"What the hell just happened?" Mara called, voice shaky as she started making her way toward us, relief evident despite the fear. "I thought someone was dying!"

"Void happened," I called back.

"We’re all alive?" Ryota asked, looking between us like he needed visual confirmation that everyone was still in one piece.

"We’re fine," Azryth confirmed.

Henrik reached us first, carefully navigating the glass-covered floor. "That was... I thought we were losing someone, the destruction was so sudden."

"I know," I said. "Sorry for the scare."

"Understatement," Mara muttered, arriving next and immediately checking her scanner like she needed the data to prove we were actually okay. "We were separated for what, five minutes? And Void just demolished the entire dimension?"

"Just the maze part," I said. "The dimension itself seems stable."

"Surprisingly stable," Henrik agreed, reviewing his tablet with hands that weren’t quite steady. "This much destruction should’ve triggered a collapse."

Ryota joined us last, still looking rattled. "I’ve never seen anything move that fast, one second I was trying to navigate mirrors, the next everything was exploding, I thought..." He trailed off.

"We’re okay," I said.

He nodded, lowering his weapon finally.

The small furball created sparkles, clearly pleased with the appreciation.

"Thank you," Mara said, looking at Void with genuine gratitude mixed with lingering fear. "That maze was going to take hours to navigate, even if you nearly gave us all heart attacks doing it."

"Good!" Void chirped.

I looked around at what remained of the palace, through the wreckage, I could see a central chamber in the distance, still mostly intact despite Void’s destruction.

And in that chamber, visible through the broken walls, was a pedestal.

On the pedestal sat a mirror, not shattered like everything else, perfectly pristine, reflecting light that seemed wrong somehow.

"That’s it," Azryth said quietly, following my gaze.

The fragment, it had to be.

"Let’s move," I said. "Before this place decides to collapse."

We made our way through the shattered palace, careful with the broken glass covering every surface, the stuff was sharp enough to cut through boots if we stepped wrong, and I was already regretting not bringing better footwear for dimensional maze navigation.

Note to self: invest in glass-proof boots before the next gate.

Void floated ahead, cheerfully creating sparkles like it hadn’t just demolished an entire dimensional structure, completely unbothered by the chaos it had caused.

The central chamber grew closer with each step.

As we approached, I could see more details, the chamber was circular, walls made of intact mirrors that had somehow survived Void’s assault, the pedestal in the center was carved from the same crystal material as the gate fragments.

And the mirror sitting on it pulsed with entity energy I could feel from here.

The fragment must be inside it.

We reached the chamber entrance and stopped.

The mirrors inside were perfect, pristine, completely untouched by the destruction surrounding them.

"That’s not suspicious at all," I muttered.

"Extremely suspicious," Henrik agreed.

I looked at Azryth. "This is going to be terrible, isn’t it?"

"Probably," he said. "But we’re doing it anyway."

"Obviously."

We stepped into the chamber together.

The moment we crossed the threshold, the mirrors reacted.

New glass materialized from nowhere, rising from the floor and descending from the ceiling, surrounding us on all sides with pristine reflective surfaces that appeared faster than we could react.

And in those mirrors, our reflections moved.

Not with us, independently.

I watched my reflection step forward when I was standing still.

Watched it smile when my face was neutral.

Watched it reach for a weapon I wasn’t holding.

"Oh, that’s not good," I said.

Then all the reflections stepped out of the mirrors.

Perfect copies of each of us, emerging from the glass like it was water instead of solid surface.

Reflection-Riven faced me, identical down to the smallest detail.

Reflection-Azryth stood opposite the real one, demon power already manifesting.

Reflection-Mara, Reflection-Henrik, Reflection-Ryota, all stepping out to face their originals with expressions that matched ours exactly.

I looked for Reflection-Void.

The mirror where Void floated showed... nothing, empty space, no reflection at all.

Just like before.

Weird, but at least Void wouldn’t have to fight itself.

Reflection-Riven moved first.