Mythos Of Narcissus: Reborn As An NPC In A Horror VRMMO

The moment Naosi's hand touched the smooth surface of the Mirroring Well, reality itself seemed to ripple. A resonant hum vibrated through the air, reverberating deep within my chest like the echo of some primordial force awakening. The monolith shimmered, its anti-light surface twisting and undulating as if it were liquid rather than solid.

Naosi, hesitant and visibly nervous, tried to pull her hand back, but her palm remained connected to the surface. Her brow furrowed in confusion. "It's… pulling," she whispered, her voice trembling slightly.

The Mirroring Well reacted with a deep, resonant pulse, and Naosi gasped as her hand was pushed forward instead. Slowly, almost tenderly, an identical hand emerged from the surface of the monolith, pale and familiar.

The two hands connected, palm to palm, and the tension in the air grew heavier as if the entire world was holding its breath.

From the anti-light of the Mirroring Well, a figure began to emerge. First, the arm. Then the shoulder. Piece by piece, an exact replica of Naosi took form, as though she were pulling her own clone from the fragmented possibilities of infinite realities.

The moment the figure fully detached from the monolith, it staggered forward. The sound of bare feet meeting the ground was unnervingly human.

There she stood—an exact duplicate of Naosi, from her silvery hair to her yellow eyes. She blinked, her expression unreadable, her bare form glowing faintly in the dim light of the spiraling moon.

"Apprehend her," I commanded, my voice calm but sharp. There was no hesitation in my tone—it was a signal to act immediately.

The bastioneers moved with precision. Prismforges morphed into gleaming restraints as Lydia, Amelia, and Erika encircled the clone, their weapons snapping into place to lock her movements.

"Restraining her now," Lydia said through their Cognitive Engine's neural link. The Prismforge bands wrapped around the clone's wrists, ankles, and neck, their psychic sensitivity adjusting to prevent escape.

Primus' Prismforges emerged from the shadows as her featureless, glowing eyes fixed on the clone. Without a word, she extended her hands, her own Prismforges forming an intricate web of chains that wrapped around the clone's midsection, anchoring her in place.

And that wasn't the end of our cautiousness.

Viviane stepped forward, her hand glowing with a faint golden light as she murmured an incantation. A shimmering veil of magic enveloped the clone, binding many of her bodily fluids and paralyzing a great proportion of her completely. "

Kuzunoha raised her hand, a smirk playing on her lips as she cast a soul-disrupting spell. Crimson-purple tendrils of energy coiled around the clone's form, targeting the very essence within.

Verina, standing slightly apart, activated her conceptual Furnace. Her influence of heat focused on the intensity of the clone's mind, seeking to suppress any attempts at resistance.

All while this was happening, Naosi, the original, was pulled away from the scene by Erika. Naosi looked shaken, her eyes wide as she watched her doppelgänger bound and immobilized, but her iconic awkward smile remained. "This is… too surreal," she muttered.

One might deem this an overkill, but I don't trust my luck when it comes to the randomness of the Calamity Object or Ordeal as a whole.

In my first week of living in this world, I encountered not one, not two, not three, but four Qliphoth Objects within such a short amount of time span.

With that amount of luck, I probably should be expecting some sort of divine and ascended version of Naosi from the Mirroring Well.

Charis, cradling Lupina in her floating shadowy hands, stepped closer to the restrained clone. Her white eyes glowed faintly, her serene expression giving way to a flicker of unease. "Father…" she said softly, her voice carrying an otherworldly weight. "The soul inside her—it's a divine threat! It is a far greater menace than any Calamity Object we face so far!"

Ah, I jinxed it.

The moment those words were uttered, it hung in everyone's air like a death sentence.

Before anyone could properly respond, the clone's head tilted slightly. Then, in a rapid succession, far faster than the average speed of mortal perception, a wide smile stretched across her face, exposing perfectly white teeth—her yellow eyes began to change, the irises shifting as streaks of crimson energy coursed through her silver hair.

Her left eye spiraled its own sclera, a maddening vortex of green, while her right eye turned into a blue lens layered with a golden crosshair. The colors glowed faintly, the light pulsating like a heartbeat.

The Prismforges binding her snapped.

One by one, the restraints shattered as the materials were forcefully expelled, as the fragments swirled back into the default form of each bastioneer's Prismforge suitcase. Lydia, Erika, and Amelia stepped back instinctively, their gazes narrowing as they recalibrated their weapons.

"Interesting," Kuzunoha murmured, her voice carrying a note of genuine amusement despite the escalating danger.

Many of her crimson-purple tendrils faltered, dissipating into the air as the clone's presence overwhelmed the spell, but the same amount if not greater were summoned to directly attack the clone's soul.

At the same time, Viviane's binding spell flickered, her expression tightening as she focused all her strength to maintain control. "She's… resisting everything…!"

The only thing that was matching the intensity of the overwhelming presence that this clone exuded was the influence of Verina's Furnace fighting hand-to-hand.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

But even then, all of those were still not enough to fully neutralize her.

The clone's voice shattered the intensity, with a low and melodic yet laced with an unnerving, chaotic mirth. "Ah, what a dangerous situation I've found myself in," she purred, her smile twisting into something uncomfortably wide, her perfect teeth glinting in the eerie glow of the spiraling moon above.

The sound of her words wasn't merely heard—it seemed to resonate in the very fabric of the air, pressing against the ears like a whisper that couldn't be ignored.

Then, her body began to change at the hyper-speed that was consistent with the start of her transformation.

Her silver hair, previously identical to Naosi's, rippled like liquid metal, growing rapidly as if alive. It cascaded in thick, voluminous waves, flowing down far beyond her ankles, pooling slightly on the ground before twisting upward—the strands coiled unnaturally, forming loose twin tails that started not from the crown of her head but from the back, the massive curls heavy with a bizarre, almost gravitational density.

Her transformation didn't stop there. From her right hand, sharp metallic protrusions emerged, claw-like and wickedly gleaming, their edges almost humming with the promise of flesh-rending violence. They extended outward, each "finger" a razor-sharp blend of flesh and twisted Theotech—an abomination of elegance and brutality.

In her left hand, as if conjured from the very shadows, an ebony-bone cane materialized. The cane seemed almost ceremonial, carved with cryptic patterns that glowed faintly with crimson light. Its surface shimmered like polished obsidian, yet its weight carried a sense of foreboding—as though it was less a tool and more an extension of her will.

Her heterochromatic eyes blazed to life. One eye twisted violently, its green iris spinning like a vortex that dragged the mind into madness. The other heightened its intensity—its stare both surgical and omnipotent.

"My name is," she announced, her voice reverberating with an unnatural echo that seemed to originate from every direction at once, " Naosi, the Heavenly Victory~ and I refused to be downtrodden~"

The declaration wasn't simply spoken—it was a proclamation, a truth carved into existence itself. A surge of energy exploded outward from her body, a visible ripple that distorted the air and sent everyone skidding back several steps, their weapons raised in tense anticipation. Even the ground beneath her feet cracked and groaned under the sheer pressure of her presence.

And then, she moved.

Her clawed hand lashed out with terrifying speed toward Amelia, the gleaming blades slicing through the air with a sound like ripping silk. Amelia barely evaded the attack, throwing herself back with a defensive roll as the razor-like claws left deep gouges in the ground where she had stood.

"Engage!" I barked, my voice cutting through the chaos as the bastioneers sprang into empowered action.

Lydia and Erika were the first to respond, their Prismforges morphing into gleaming shields and spears respectively.

Erika charged with a fierce battle cry, her spear thrusting forward in a streak of brilliant light. But the Heavenly Victory twisted effortlessly, the motion almost playful, her clawed hand swiping upward to deflect the attack.

Lydia flanked her, raising her shield to bash the clone with unrelenting force, but the impact never landed. With a haunting laugh, the Heavenly Victory leaped backward, her hair flaring outward like wings, each strand glowing faintly as if infused with her chaotic essence.

Viviane stepped forward, her fae magic weaving into a concentrated, shimmering barrier that encased the bastioneers. "Hold your positions!" she commanded, her voice steady despite the storm brewing around her. "Don't let her outmaneuver you!"

From above, Verina activated her crystalline musket—the disassembled nodes glowing fiercely as they unleashed a concentrated beam of destructive energy.

"Ah, a modified Theotech, how wonderful~"

The Heavenly Victory raised her cane, and in a single fluid motion, she spun it like a baton, deflecting the beam into a shower of sparks.

Kuzunoha chuckled, her crimson eyes gleaming with excitement as she unleashed a volley of arcane projectiles. The crimson bolts streaked toward the clone, but they seemed to curve mid-air, drawn into the spiraling vortex of her green eye.

Those projectiles were utterly consumed as if vacuumed into non-existent.

"Oh my~" Kuzunoha mused, her grin widening. "You're an interesting one, aren't you?"

Through it all, the Heavenly Victory danced through the chaos with unnerving grace. Her laughter rang out like a haunting melody, mocking and jubilant. "Oh, you're all so serious," she teased, her voice dripping with amusement as she sidestepped a combined assault from Lydia and Erika. "Not only that I was summoned disrespectfully into nowhere, but I was also greeted with such rotten hospitality."

"She is rather equal to Viviane in terms of existential height," I muttered, narrowing my eyes as I watched her movements. "But she possessed something that is far greater than what Kuzunoha utilizes in her weakest form."

Looking through her soul essence, I somewhat understood the summarized history behind this individual.

Naosi the Heavenly Victory is part of a possible reality where Carcosa's ceiling was far greater and non-limiting, and so were its inhabitants that matched the sheer potential.

This version of Naosi was simply the one who had gone through multiple wars with those of demigod-level, and she was one if not the brightest individual around it.

The epithet, Heavenly Victory, was simply her domain of divinity. She basically had gone through so many conflicts and claimed so much victory, she could just manipulate reality itself to give her the victory she needed on a silver platter.

So basically, she got plot armor.

"Heh, that is a good one."

Her strength, precision, and sheer audacity were unlike anything I'd anticipated. Yet, despite the danger, I felt no fear—only a profound sense of awe and curiosity.

Eve was immensely more terrifying than this, after all.

It was time to intervene.

Raising both hands, I used my All-Tampering Divine Dexterity—the faint glow emanating from my fingertips signaling the impossible precision I commanded. With a swift motion, I tore through the fabric of space before me, creating a warped space that connected directly to the space in front of the Heavenly Victory.

Before she could react, my hand shot through the portal, moving at the speed of what I roughly calculated to be the 50% of the speed of light.

I grasped her neck with unrelenting force, the impact of my grip sending a shockwave rippling outward.

Then, with a single, decisive pull, I yanked her through the warped space, slamming her body into the ground at my feet.

The force of the impact created a massive crater, the ground trembling violently as dust and debris rose into the air.

As the dust settled, the Heavenly Victory lay sprawled on the ground, her form seemingly neutralized. But her smile hadn't faltered.

"You're… an interesting one too," she murmured, her voice steady despite the force I had just exerted. Slowly, I noticed her right arm was missing—not severed grotesquely, but cleanly detached, as if by design.

Then, my heightened senses caught it—a distortion of a familiar occurrence that was unveiling near the Mirroring Well.

My gaze snapped toward the monolith, and there I saw it: her disembodied hand resting against the surface, its fingers splayed wide.

The Well shimmered again, its anti-light rippling ominously as another figure began to emerge.

It was another clone of the Heavenly Victory, identical in every detail imaginable.

And this one, too, wore the same enigmatic smile.