A wicked smile creeps across Despair's face as a target made out of straw is obliterated in front of him from a dark explosion. Flexing and looking at his hand he sighs in content as he looks to Luxure who blasts another target into dust using her staff's magic attack.

"Our bodies seem to be adapting to the projected amounts of magical power we held within Yuuki's mind. The pool has helped speed this process along a lot faster than I had originally hoped." Despair states as he feels a tad uneasy inside rather than the stability he speaks of.

"It would seem so, master. It pleases Luxure that you've been able to adjust so quickly~" Luxure smiles warmly at Despair.

"Thank you... Though I feel there is a way to go before I feel one hundred percent. I think I shall retire to the pool for now and regain a bit more strength before putting my plans into their next phase." Despair begins to leave as he bids farewell to Luxure who seems sad.

Despair exits the mage training gallery and makes his way through the hallways until reaching the main room with the stairs leading up to the second floor of the main castle.

"I say the word 'plans', however, the more I think about this the more it just seems like the desperate actions of a child begging for attention..." Despair sighs deeply as he walks up the stairs, the uneasy feeling building inside him.

Upon reaching the door, he opens it and proceeds inside the pool room before the door closes behind him, the room being coated in the gentle mystical blue glow from the waters below. Upon clicking his fingers, Despair's clothes dissipate into smoke and he slips himself down to his regular spot.

"Though, with that being said... Even if I'm passed my initial rage from when I was reborn, I can't just surrender after I've made such an effort to set all this up. No matter how much I might want to, I can't redeem the actions I made in hindsight and simply expect to be welcomed back... No, I need to play the bad guy till the end." Despair sinks himself down more into the pool, his mind swirling with thousands of different thoughts.

Despair tries to alleviate his growing discomfort by summoning a small ball of darkness which he bounces off the wall across from him idly. Throwing it slightly more to the left, the ball ends up passing through the hanging mirror, causing the surface to ripple. Quickly dispelling the darkness, Despair sits up and stares at the mirror in confusion.

"That's new... I don't recall it doing that before." Despair stands up and snaps his fingers to clothe himself before leaning over to try and touch the mirror.

"YOUR TIME IS UP DESPAIR. YOU DON'T WANT TO PLAY THE BAD GUY ANYMORE? FINE. DON'T." A dark deep sinister voice states grimly making Despair shudder and actually pale.

"W-who the hell was that? Show yourself you coward!" Despair looks around frantically.

"I AM RIGHT HERE..." The voice whispers making Despair look down.

Within his chest can be seen a swirling bottomless pit of thick darkness that moves and sways on its own. Suddenly a pair of dark purple eyes and a mouth of black featureless teeth appears within the darkness. A pitch black claw bursts forth from the pit and grabs onto the side of the chest cavity to begin pulling itself out. Screaming in sheer agony as it feels like his very being is being rendered from itself and his energy sapped, Despair collapses to his knees.

"I STAND OPPOSITE YOU ALWAYS, YOUR REFLECTION GIVEN FORM. REJOICE MY CHILDREN..." The voice booms within Despair's head yet again as another claw shoots up to help.

Despair is brought to heel as a pitch black tar-like entity springs from his chest, the hole closing up shortly after. Slowly the creature turns around and begins to remould and break itself into a more suitable form. Cracking its limbs and flexing its new muscles, the creature takes on an altered appearance to Despair but very similar. Its hair is shiny, looking like tar, and his eyes are a pure solid dark purple and his smile holds razor-sharp teeth. With tremendous speed, he picks up Despair by his head and snarls lowly.

"... for madness has come to play." The creature continues his former line in a more vocal form, low and husky while still being ridiculously chilling.

Groaning, Despair is stuffed through the mirror before the frame is smashed repeatedly against the walls over and over combined with manic laughter.

"Enjoy your... 'Vacation', little brother... You won't even recognise your precious castle when I'm done..." The creature smiles widely.

The smell of clean air and the feeling of mild rain can be felt hitting his body as he struggled with the concept of rousing himself to be conscious. 'Am I dead..?', the thought passed through his mind as the pain deep within his chest reminded him he was unfortunately very much alive. However, where exactly he remained was a mystery as the only conclusion he can draw before everything went black was being stuffed through the mirror.

"Where did you come from?" A soft voice asks from within the darkness of his vision.

"He might be dead." Another more brash voice states in comment to the first.

"Rainbow! I don't think you're helping the situation." The first voice chides the second.

"Okay, okay... He could be though. I mean, lying in the rain in front of the monument? Gotta be dead or dying, right?" The second voice, currently known to him as only 'Rainbow', speaks again.

Rustling can be heard as a presence is felt kneeling beside him to his left.

"He isn't quite normal, so I can only imagine where he came from... But what would puzzle me more is to why someone like this would be at either mirror..." The first voice ponders to themselves.

'Either mirror'? Did this confirm the presence or more than just his own? Although, given how she talks about it, it would seem they existed before his mirror did.

"Sunset, I'm getting soaked here. if we are going to help him, can we do it now rather than catch a cold?" Rainbow asks the first voice, now known as 'Sunset'.

"Mhmm, we can take him back to my apartment. I don't think he's a bad person, least it doesn't seem that way." Sunset states as he feels her begin to help him up.

Perhaps it was his will for self-preservation, or maybe his body moved on a will of its own but he slightly aided her by shifting his weight to allow her to carry him with more ease. A second presence came to his other side and lent themselves to helping the first carry his weary body.

"If this guy turns out to be some form of a serial killer... Don't say I didn't warn ya..." Rainbow huffs as they begin walking somewhere.

"I'm sure I can handle whatever he turns out to be, Rainbow. Thank you for your concern." Sunset reassures her friend, who sighs.

The journey was short lived as he fully blacked out and remained that way for a while.

Author's Note

It took me a bloody long time to figure out just how I wanted to continue this fic and while I'm still not fully sure, I'll try to piece together what I have and see how it goes. Thank you all for your patience and I hope those who do, continue to enjoy this fic.