Reborn with the Devil's system-Chapter 45: Mirror sovereign

The Dead Strings Theatre was a place whispered about by the oldest Systems — a realm not recorded in books, nor acknowledged by history.

Because those who remembered it... never lived long enough to tell the tale.

Its entrance appeared as a spiraling tear in the sky, a black maw that hung above a crumbling opera house floating in void. Its red curtains fluttered though there was no wind. The chandeliers swayed with unseen weight, and music — soft, melancholic, broken — played without source.

Elias stood before it, cloaked in black and fire.

Behind him were Kael, Myra, and the Hollow Prophet — now called Nerion, bound by fate, but free in will.

"This is suicide," Kael muttered, checking his weapon. "The files say this guy can mimic Sovereign skills. Mimic. That means he can do what you do, Elias."

"Then he’ll understand what it means to fight a Sovereign who refuses to lose," Elias replied, walking forward.

Nerion closed his eyes. "He won’t greet you as a Binder. He sees all enemies as puppets. And every stage... is a trap."

> [System Alert]

Realm Entered: Dead Strings Theatre

Binder Identity: The Marionette King

Risk: Fatal

Status: Elias Black – Thread Anchor Active

Skill Theft: Possible if Thread Anchor is disrupted

Elias took the first step into the opera house.

And the doors slammed shut behind him.

—

They were standing on a stage.

But not just any stage.

Their story was being acted out.

A chorus of wooden dolls — painted like Kael, Myra, Elias, and even Steve — danced mechanically, reenacting moments from their journey. When one puppet Elias stabbed the Vale Queen, blood sprayed from its wooden chest.

The audience?

Rows of mannequins with stitched smiles, clapping in slow rhythm.

"Gods," Myra whispered. "What is this place?"

A deep voice echoed from above.

"Welcome to the final act."

A throne descended from the ceiling.

Sitting upon it, surrounded by tangled strings, was the Marionette King.

He was made of porcelain and bone, his arms long and sharp like scissor blades. Threads ran from his fingers to the dolls below. His crown was cracked — and embedded into his skull.

"You’ve come to play," he cooed, voice sharp with madness. "But don’t worry, Elias. I already know your lines."

He snapped his fingers.

And the strings latched.

> [System Alert]

Sovereign Thread Detected – Copy In Progress

Elias Black’s Skill: Threadwalk – 63% Copied

Warning: Sovereign Skill Theft in Progress!

Elias screamed as golden lines began pulling from his chest. Pain surged through his nerves like electric agony. Myra tried to slash the threads, but they danced away like silk.

Kael fired into the throne — only for the bullets to freeze mid-air, suspended by puppet strings.

"You don’t understand," the Marionette King whispered. "The only free man is the one who controls the play. And I? I wrote this script centuries ago."

Nerion stepped forward, eyes glowing.

"Not anymore."

He raised his hand and unleashed Future Shard, projecting one of the King’s possible deaths.

The theatre shook. A thousand strings writhed.

The King screamed — not in pain, but in rage. "Liar! You dare rewrite my finale?!"

The strings retracted from Elias.

He collapsed, breathing heavily, as the System recalculated.

> [Skill Theft Interrupted]

Sovereign Anchor Stabilized

Bonus Gained: Thread Immunity (5 Minutes)

Elias stood, eyes blazing red.

"My turn."

He activated Threadwalk — time cracked around him. The dolls on stage froze. The mannequins screamed. The entire opera twisted as Elias jumped through probability.

He emerged behind the King — and plunged his soulblade into the puppet master’s shoulder.

The King hissed. "Not bad. But I’m not made of flesh."

He pulled free, no blood — just dust and splinters of soul.

Then his porcelain mask cracked in two.

Beneath it was a face — human once, now barely holding together. Pale. Hollow. Crying.

"You were like me," Elias said.

"I was better than you," the King snarled. "Until they cut my strings and left me to rot."

He snapped again.

From the ceiling descended new puppets — monstrous parodies of Elias’s team. Each one had strings flowing straight from the King’s crown.

Puppet Kael, with a mouth stitched shut and rifles for arms.

Puppet Myra, weeping mirrored blood from her eyes, blade fused to her spine.

Puppet Nerion, broken hourglasses for limbs, leaking sand from every joint.

> [System Alert]

Enemy Constructs: Soulbound Mimics

Weakness: Crown Thread Link

Suggestion: Sever Thread Source from Puppetmaster’s Mind

Kael shouted, "I’m not about to get killed by a damn puppet of myself!"

He tackled Puppet Kael, and the two went crashing off the stage.

Myra danced blade-to-blade with her mimic, sparks flying as metal screamed against metal. She gritted her teeth, whispering, "I am not your reflection!"

Nerion held back Puppet Nerion, manipulating time just long enough to buy Elias a window.

"GO!" he shouted.

Elias launched himself at the King, who twisted through the air like a spider, avoiding every strike.

"You think I’m the villain?" the King spat. "You are me in the making!"

"No," Elias said, hurling his blade. "I chose not to be you."

The blade struck the crown.

It cracked.

The threads recoiled, whipping like angry serpents.

Elias rushed forward — fists glowing with Dominion — and punched through the throne, through the crown, through the King’s twisted skull.

There was silence.

Then:

> [Binder of Control – Defeated]

Title Gained: Puppetbreaker

Skill Acquired: Dominion Threads – Bind up to 3 targets, stealing 10% of their strength and immunity per bind.

The opera house collapsed around them.

The mannequins fell. The strings disintegrated. The dolls shattered into ash.

Kael limped forward, bloodied. "Please tell me we’re done."

Nerion shook his head.

"No," Elias said softly. "There’s still one more."

He looked up — to the sky, where a black sun had begun to rise.

> [System Ping]

Final Binder Detected: The Mirror Sovereign

Realm: Unknown

Risk Level: Sovereign Equal

Identity: "System Creator – Classified"

Elias breathed deep.

"The final act begins."

[System Alert]

Final Binder Confirmed: Mirror Sovereign

Realm Access: Pending

Thread Permissions: Sovereign Override Required

Risk: Absolute

Elias stood in the ruins of the Dead Strings Theatre, the shattered remains of puppets and memories strewn around him like confetti from a forgotten tragedy.

The battle was over — but something still watched.

Something ancient.

Something Elias had felt breathing down his neck since the day he resurrected.

Now, the System pulsed with urgency.

Kael sat nearby, bleeding and silent. Myra cleaned her blade with trembling hands, and Nerion — the once-blind Prophet — stared at the horizon where no sun rose, only an obsidian sphere hanging in an eternal eclipse.

Elias’s eyes flickered crimson.

> [System Alert]

Sovereign Anchor: Stabilized

Thread Integrity: 100%

You are being summoned.

Destination: The Core Mirror

Realm Class: Unrecorded. Unmapped. Unforgivable.

"Guys," Elias said, his voice barely above a whisper. "I have to go alone."

Kael tried to rise. "No way. We came this far together—"

"You’ve seen what they are," Elias cut in. "These Binders weren’t just tyrants. They were fragments of something bigger. This last one... he’s not just a threat. He made the System. He designed the game."

"And now you’re going to confront God?" Myra asked, a dark smile playing on her lips. "Why does that sound exactly like you?"

Elias chuckled.

But it was hollow.

"I’m not confronting him," he said. "I’m replacing him."

He turned. The air rippled.

A portal began to open — not a swirling vortex, but a mirror. It reflected nothing. Not Elias. Not the world. It was empty.

Like it was waiting for something real to step through.

He took one final breath, stepped forward—

—and vanished.

---

Inside the Core Mirror

There was no floor. No sky. No body.

Elias floated — or fell — or stood. He couldn’t tell.

The space around him pulsed with memories: voices, screams, whispers, systems. His childhood. His first death. His first taste of blood. His first taste of power.

And then he saw it.

A figure exactly like him, sitting calmly at the center of this impossible space.

Not a reflection.

A twin.

The Mirror Sovereign.

He looked older. Not by age, but by wear — as if every version of Elias that had ever failed had bled into this being.

"You’re finally here," the Mirror Sovereign said, voice calm and cold.

"You’re the one behind all of this," Elias replied. "The system. The Binders. My death. My rebirth."

"No," the Mirror Sovereign said. "You are."

Elias’s eyes narrowed.

"What?"

"You built this world," the Sovereign said. "Every time you chose vengeance. Every time you chose power. Every time you didn’t choose to forgive, you fed me."

"You’re lying."

"No. I’m mirroring."

He stood, barefoot and godlike, threads of code flowing behind his cloak like digital wings.

"You were always destined to end up here," the Mirror Sovereign said. "You, Elias Black, are not the hero. You’re the seed. You’re the reason the System exists."

> [System Conflict Detected]

Two Sovereign Cores Registered: Elias Black vs. Unknown fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓

Commencing Battle for System Control

"Then I’ll end it," Elias snarled.

And the mirror world shattered.

---

The Battle for the System

The Mirror Sovereign moved first.

Elias ducked — barely dodging a spear made of raw code. His enemy wielded his exact abilities but faster, sharper, perfected by time and failure.

Elias summoned Dominion Threads, trying to bind him—

But the Mirror laughed. "Child’s trick."

He cut through them and countered with Threadwalk, appearing behind Elias and slicing a line across his back.

Blood floated in the void.

> [Damage Received: 14%]

[Warning: Mirror Abilities Are Adapting]

Elias gritted his teeth. "You think you’ve mastered me? I’m still evolving."

He triggered Fate Severer, tearing open a vision of the Mirror Sovereign’s one blind spot — a moment of hesitation, a flicker of mercy in an otherwise perfect mind.

Elias lunged.

Their blades met.

Time bent.

Reality twisted.

They fought across a thousand mirrors, each reflecting a different version of the same man. In one, Elias was crowned. In another, dead. In one, a demon. In another, a martyr.

But only one could be real.

> [Skill Unlocked: Final Thread – System Rewrite]

Effect: Upon defeating the Mirror Sovereign, user may rewrite any one law of the System.

Condition: Must sever the final thread connecting your soul to the Mirror.

"You can’t win," the Mirror Sovereign gasped, starting to crack.

Elias’s eyes burned gold.

"I’m not here to win," he said. "I’m here to change everything."

He drove his blade forward—

—and it plunged into the Mirror’s chest.

The Sovereign let out a soft laugh.

"I was waiting... for you..."

And then he shattered — not into blood, but data, soulstrings, and ancient code.

---

> [Victory Confirmed]

Mirror Sovereign Defeated

New Role Assigned: System Overlord

Choose One Rewrite Law:

1. End the System. Free all Binders. Release all Souls.

2. Rebuild the System. Rule as a true God.

3. Keep the System. But change its Purpose.

Elias stood in silence.

He thought of Rylen. Of Kael. Myra. Even Steve.

He thought of the monsters. The sacrifices. The power.

Then he raised his hand.

"I choose..."

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