Mirror Realm and Xing/Xang

The Hero without a Reflection

Mirror Drakath briefly exchanges places with Lore's Champion of Chaos. In the other Drakath's stronghold, he finds two Evil spirits where Good and Evil should balance one another. Xing's true sister, Good Xang, is in the Mirror Realm; the Xang beside her belongs there instead. Mirror Drakath promises that this displacement will eventually be corrected. For now, another imbalance has brought him across.

The Hero is consulting Warlic and Cysero about a medallion when the visitor arrives. This Drakath leads the Lords of Order, and the Hero already knows something of his world's Evil King Alteon and Undead Artix. His warning is personal: the Hero has no reflection anywhere on the other side. Their actions have no corresponding force to balance them, and the multiverse is beginning to react. Unless a remedy can be found, it will erase the Hero from existence.

In Battleoff, Mirror Cysero and Mirror Warlic approach the problem through science. The Hero helps gather parts, batteries and a stolen magna-gem for an instrument that can detect inverse wave signatures. They expect several weak sources whose combined strength might balance the Hero. Instead, the machine finds only one impossibly faint signal. It comes from Brightfall, the city protected by Gravelyn the Good and her Lightscythe Army.

Brightfall needs help before the search can continue. The Hero fights Alteon's undead, helps the wounded defenders, places light wards and brings down the commander directing the assault. Then the signal leads to an ancient monolith in the square. Gravelyn knows neither its origin nor its purpose; it was already there before Brightfall was moved onto Victorious. She is willing to open it, and her blade breaks through the stone.

Inside is a dragon egg unlike any Mirror Drakath has seen. Freed from its casing, it begins restoring the balance around the Hero. The connection remains unexplained when Lore's Drakath sends the Evil Twins to steal it. They cannot immediately cross back, giving the rescuers time to search the Mirror Realm. If the egg reaches Drakath in Lore, the Hero will be stranded on this side. The Hero fears that breaking it would be worse still.

A Bargain across the Mirror

Dage the Good leads the Legion of Light against Alteon's undead in the Overworld. His work reverses the purpose the Hero associates with his name: he frees enslaved souls instead of claiming them. The Hero helps rearm and supply the Legion, recover a fallen courier's signet and release the spirits bound into the enemy army. Captured plans reveal another powerful undead being raised, while DoomFire threatens to spoil the souls still held captive.

The egg is in Alteon's camp. The king remembers the Hero's earlier intrusion into his throne room and refuses a peaceful exchange. After their last encounter, he gathered Undead Artix's parts, reanimated him and made improvements. Now he orders his rebuilt servant to kill the Hero. Even the warning that the Hero's death could destroy the egg fails to move him; he is willing to lose it rather than surrender it.

The Hero defeats Undead Artix and takes his severed head, intending to bring it to Dage so Artix's soul can finally be freed. Alteon tries to smash the egg, but Gravelyn intervenes. The rescue gives the Twins another opening: the egg falls through a Chaos rift into Evil Xing's hands. As they try to escape, Mirror Drakath forces an exchange between the two Xangs. For a moment, each realm again contains one Good spirit and one Evil spirit.

That correction cannot hold. Mirror Evil Xang sends the egg across to Lore's Drakath, leaving the Hero trapped. Drakath offers a trade: he will return the egg if his reflection allows Mirror Evil Xang to remain with Evil Xing in Lore. The Hero argues that their own world still needs them to fight Chaos. Mirror Drakath accepts a smaller imbalance rather than deprive Lore of its defender, and the Xangs are switched back.

The Hero returns to Lore, leaving the celestial egg with Gravelyn and Mirror Drakath. Questions about why it balances them, and why it was hidden, remain unanswered. Drakath is satisfied with the arrangement too. The egg is in his reflection's keeping, the Hero is continuing the struggle that helps open his Chaos Gate, and his favored Twins are together again. He promises to make them a true Chaos Lord and unlock their Chaos Beast.

The Other Half of a Spirit

Another summons interrupts the Hero at Yulgar's inn. Exchanged for the celestial egg, they appear in Brightfall while the egg is left with Clerics Dawn and Joy in Lore. Mirror Drakath apologizes for the abrupt return. What once seemed a tolerable imbalance has grown to a critical point, and the Evil Twins are trying to summon their Chaos Beast. Waiting for Lore's Drakath to be defeated is no longer an answer.

Good Xing and Good Xang do not want to part, but agree to what preserving Order requires. Mirror Drakath cannot simply repeat the exchange by force: his counterpart is strong enough to block him. With the Hero's help, there may be a way through. Across the divide, the Evil Twins complain that their promised Beast still will not come. Drakath counsels patience without explaining what their summoning lacks.

The preparations lead to Bardolph in RedDeath Swamp. Once a powerful White Mage, he is now a ghost who cannot touch the materials his enchantment needs. The Hero helps strengthen and solidify him, then gathers what will make a spirit beacon and a trap: purified water, a flame that water will not douse, spider webbing, ectoplasm and spectral energy. The spell must draw the two Xangs through the mirror and keep their spirits on the proper sides.

The exchange separates the willing Good Twins and returns Evil Xang to the Mirror Realm. In Lore, Evil Xing sees Good Xang arrive where her Evil companion had been. The apparent victory conceals another danger. Drakath admits that he hoped Order would insist on restoring the balance. His servants accuse him of betrayal, while Xing begins to feel an unfamiliar increase in power.

Good Xang calls to the Hero for help, but Drakath reveals the missing condition: Xing could never summon her Beast without the true other half of her spirit. Lore's Good and Evil spirits unite as Xiang. The Chaos Harpy appears. Restoring the proper balance between worlds has given Drakath the combination he needed, rather than depriving him of a servant.

In the Mirror Realm, the abandoned Evil Xang rages at Drakath through the mirror. Good Xing tries to comfort her; Xang strikes the glass and leaves it broken. Mirror Drakath acknowledges the cost of their success. The realms are balanced, but another Chaos Beast has been raised. He gives the Hero a shard through which he can communicate when they return to Lore. Together, they must stop what their intervention helped unleash.

Freedom for Xiang

At the Mirror Portal, a reflection of the Champion of Order warns the Hero about the Harpy. Before the proper moment, it describes itself as an image of a future that has not happened yet. Once the exchange is complete, it directs the Hero to Alina for protection against the Beast's shriek. Reflective fragments, uncorrupted blood and a harpy feather become the ingredients for Shriekward Potions. The Hero prepares to face the Beast before confronting the Chaos Lord who summoned it.

The Chaos Harpy falls, and Xiang meets the Hero with fury. Her Evil voice calls the dead Beast their pet and wonders whether killing its slayer would bring it back or merely satisfy them. Then Good Xang reaches the surface. She apologizes, urges the Hero to leave and warns that she is already losing control. The power Drakath unlocked belongs to both spirits, whose intentions remain opposed.

The Evil side invites the Hero to stay and play. The Good side insists that the Hero wants no part in it and tries to protect them. Violence overtakes the exchange: Xiang seizes the Hero by the throat, then her own internal resistance gives them an opening. The Hero apologizes to Xang and charges. Facing this Chaos Lord means fighting someone who is also struggling to prevent the attack.

After the battle, the Hero lies on the ground while Xiang's halves argue over whether to hurt them. The Hero calls out to the watching Drakath and refuses the choice they believe he has arranged. They declare Xiang free. Being chaorrupted need not mean obeying the Champion of Chaos; the combined spirits can choose what to do with their power.

Good Xang welcomes that freedom and the good it might accomplish. The Evil half rejects the Hero's pity and refuses to make future choices or battles easier by fleeing. Yet Good Xang remains present too, promising that the other voice cannot silence her. The Harpy is destroyed, but Xiang has not been killed or made a dependable ally. She remains free to play her Chaotic games, and the Hero must continue toward Drakath with that uncertain power still loose in Lore.