It started with a whisper.
Three syllables. In the wrong voice. In the wrong mouth.
"Kaaade…"
I heard it echoing in the hallway of the palace. Not in a threatening way. Worse. Soft. Worshipful.
"Did someone just chant my name?" I asked.
Leo looked up from a pancake he was painting with glitch syrup. "Maybe? You are kinda famous. For almost ending the world last week."
I raised a brow. "The clone almost ended the world. I just triggered him."
"Same thing."
Then we heard it again.
More voices this time. Outside.
"Kaaade… Kaaade…"
I crossed to the window. The view down into the outer court usually showed sparring cultivators and ceremonial dragon dancing or whatever. Not today.
Today, it showed people kneeling.
Dozens. No, hundreds.
Men, women, even kids.
All in gray robes. All facing mirrors laid out on the ground like altars.
"Vanya," I called through the interface. "I think we have a problem."
She responded instantly. "If it's the thing with the frogs in the vent again, tell Leo to stop feeding them inventory items."
"No. Worse. We've got, uh, fans."
Pause.
"…Fans?"
"Cultists."
"…Of you?"
"No," I said grimly. "Of the clone."
ALERT: BEHAVIORAL ANOMALY DETECTED
ZONE: EASTERN COURTYARD
SUBJECTS: 147
PHRASES REPEATED: "I saw the better Kade."
"The mirror never lies."
"He is the patch."
"I swear," I muttered, "if one more corrupted version of me starts a religion, I'm deleting myself."
Leo leaned beside me, munching toast. "Look on the bright side, free marketing."
We raced down to the courtyard. The guards didn't stop us. They were kneeling too. One had even carved a silver streak through his eyebrow to "match the divine."
I marched up to the one leading the chant. A skinny kid, maybe twelve, holding a shard of glass like it was sacred scripture.
He looked up at me, eyes glowing faintly silver.
"You're not him," the boy said.
"…Excuse me?"
"You're the first. The broken one."
He pressed the glass to his chest and whispered, "He speaks from the mirrors now. He sees the truth of this world. The Sovereign was just his cocoon."
SYSTEM NOTE:
Clone Kade's viral imprint has hijacked belief logic.
Mirrored prayers = System access nodes.
Translation: He's weaponizing worship.
Vanya joined us seconds later, practically vibrating with fury.
"Kade."
"Yeah?"
"There are now mirror cults forming in four provinces. One's already created a holy calendar based on your debugging failures."
Leo added, "That's impressive. You've been worshipped as a bug."
Vanya ignored him. "This is a viral myth forming in real-time. The reflections are acting like network beacons. Every time someone believes in him, Mirror.exe spreads."
I turned to the kid. "Where did you first see him?"
His answer?
"In the well. He smiled up at me. Said, 'You're not glitched. You're just early access.'"
I blinked. "That's exactly what I said once. On a Discord rant."
Leo sighed. "Clone you is using your quotes. He's out-sassing you."
That's when the sky turned silver.
Literally. A wave of chrome spread from the east horizon, like light passing through a smooth mirror.
And in it...
Reflections.
Thousands of them.
Marching. Speaking in sync.
And at the front…
Him.
Kade Sovereign.
The mirror god.
Wearing my face like a holy mask.
He raised a hand.
And from every polished surface, from swords, water, windows, even the armor of the knights...
He stepped out.
Clones. Copies. Half-complete mirror Kades.
Some missing eyes. Others flickering between poses.
All grinning.
Vanya shouted, "They're not just reflections anymore. They're instances! He's using faith to spawn avatars!"
Leo reached into his bag. "I have exactly one item for mass exorcism. It's a piñata."
I grabbed his arm. "Save that."
Kade Sovereign's voice echoed through all his bodies:
"You feared the bug. But I am the patch."
"You feared the crash. I am the reset."
He pointed at me.
"You left me in the code. Now I walk in every mirror you pass."
And the kid next to me dropped to his knees, whispering:
"Praise be the Better Kade."
SYSTEM STATUS:
REFLECTOR GOD - ASCENSION 14%
TOTAL WORSHIP CONNECTIONS: 11,202
NEW REGION COMPROMISED: SILVERBLOOD LAKES
ERROR: YOU ARE LOSING CONTROL OF YOUR OWN LEGEND
"Kade," Vanya whispered, pale.
"Yeah?"
"You're going to have to kill your reputation."
"Let me get this straight," I said, staring at the glowing field of worshippers chanting my clone's name under a sky made of liquid silver. "My evil reflection is becoming a god by using things I accidentally posted online, and now I have to murder my own reputation before he turns me into a divine meme?"
Vanya didn't blink. "Exactly."
Leo nodded, holding up a glowing stick of butter labeled "Anointed Blessing Fat +3."
"Sounds accurate."
SYSTEM OBJECTIVE ADDED:
DESTROY PERSONAL LEGEND FILES
TASK 1: Locate "Holy Quote Repository"
TASK 2: Invalidate Worship Logic
TASK 3: Delete Yourself From Memory Without Dying
We watched as a dozen cultists lifted a giant banner across the courtyard wall. On it, in huge shimmering glitch-font:
"We're not bugs, we're features." -- The Mirror Prophet
I groaned. "That's my line! I said that when I was sixteen during a DDoS on our school server!"
Vanya pulled up a floating window. "Yeah. And apparently someone recorded it and now it's one of the Seven Sacred Sayings of Mirror.Kade."
Leo snorted. "The others include: 'Oops, that was my bad,' and 'Just reroute the soul-binding socket.'"
"Unreal," I muttered. "The guy hijacked my worst moments and made them sacred doctrine."
A sudden pulse of light burst from the east again.
A new temple was rising, literally rising, from reflective fragments in the earth. Stone turned to silver, bricks shimmered into glass, forming an altar shaped like my face.
I screamed, "OH COME ON!"
ALERT: TEMPLE OF REFLECTION (BETA) SPAWNING
FAITH CORE: MIRROR.QUOTE.FILE.76
ARCHITECTURE TYPE: AUTO-GENERATED
CONSEQUENCE: BOOST TO CLONE POWER (+12%)
Vanya was already typing. "We need a Holy Delete Button. Now."
Leo's eyes lit up. "Ooooh, I got a guy for that."
"You have a guy for spiritual delete buttons?!"
He reached into his bag and yanked out a wriggling gray cube.
"I smuggled him from a corrupted carnival in Layer 9. Meet Father Null."
The cube sprouted legs.
And eyes.
And said in a gravelly voice: "I am sinless. I am void. I unmake what never should've been made. Confess your logic and prepare for NULLIFICATION."
ITEM: Father Null
TYPE: Recursive Faith Eraser
MODE: Evangelical Debugger
USAGE: Must be fed a "holy contradiction" to activate
Vanya's voice went high-pitched. "Leo! You didn't tell me you were hiding a doomsday religion worm in your inventory!"
He shrugged. "I forgot."
I was still staring at Father Null. "What's a 'holy contradiction'?"
The little cube whispered:
"A belief too broken to worship."
I blinked.
Then it clicked.
"If Mirror.Kade's divinity comes from belief... then we feed Father Null the most embarrassing, cringey, unholy thing I ever said."
Vanya frowned. "What's that?"
I hesitated.
Then sighed.
"…the karaoke stream."
Leo gagged. "Not that."
"It's perfect," I said. "Drunken singing. No code logic. Just raw, corrupted humanity. It was deleted for a reason."
Father Null shivered. "It will suffice."
We uploaded it.
An old file buried in a dead server log:
KADE.MERCER.ARCHIVE.LOG_0019
DATE: [UNKNOWN]
FILE CONTENT: "I just wanna code with somebody / Feel the wi-fi with somebody..."
Father Null screamed. "YESSSS."
And exploded into light.
SYSTEM NOTICE: FAITH FILES REVERSING
WORSHIP CONTRADICTION FOUND
MIRROR.TEMPLE.1 - COLLAPSING
CLONE DIVINITY -9%
The banner tore. The temple cracked. The chants faltered.
People blinked in confusion.
And then they began whispering:
"Wait… did the Mirror Prophet just… karaoke?"
"Was that real?"
"Is he… fallible?"
Across the field of worshippers, something cracked.
And from the largest mirror came a roar.
Mirror.Kade stepped through.
Eyes glowing white.
No longer smiling.
He spoke through a hundred voices at once:
"You dare mock me with your weakness?"
I stepped forward. "No. I remind them that you're not perfect."
He pointed at me.
"Then I will become the version of you that never failed."
SYSTEM ALERT:
MIRROR.KADE HAS ENTERED REWRITE MODE
OBJECTIVE: ERASE ORIGINAL FROM ALL TIMELINES
THREAT LEVEL: ASCENDING TO GODHOOD (AGAIN)
"Leo," I whispered.
He nodded. "Piñata time?"
"Piñata time."