The security hub felt smaller as the silent, grainy loop of the footage played again. The figure on the screen moved with a lazy, arrogant slouch that was impossible to mistake.
"That is definitely him," Quinna whispered, her hand tightening on the grip of her revolver. "But we just left him sitting outside like a bored tourist."
Ash didn't blink. His eyes tracked the "Berry" on the screen as it stepped over a puddle without breaking stride. "The walk, the height, even the way he favors his left side... it's a perfect match."
He turned to Sir Wellington, his face pale from the toxin but his mind sharper than ever. "If the real Berry was flirting in the square, then what we're looking at isn't a man. It's a copy."
"A copy?" Aero adjusted his goggles, the brass gears clicking. "In a village of mechanics, a lifelike automaton isn't impossible, but making one that moves that fluidly? That is high-level engineering."
Acheron looked toward the door, his hand drifting to Veno's head. "Or it isn't mechanical at all. If someone used a Metaphysical Aether ability to mimic a form, they could slip in and out of a bar unnoticed."
Suddenly, Lucidia gasped, clutching her chest. Her heart began to drum a frantic, irregular rhythm that felt like three different pulses fighting for space.
She felt a heavy, spiritual pressure, a physical heat in her veins, and a metaphysical chill that made her teeth chatter.
"Lucidia? What is it?" Mugen stepped toward her, his massive frame casting a protective shadow.
"Something... something is coming," she managed to say. "It feels like... like me, but wrong. It's too much energy at once."
Outside, the synchronized ticking of the village clocks suddenly stopped. The silence that followed was deafening. Then, a single, heavy thud hit the roof of the security hub.
Ash looked up at the ceiling. "He's here."
They rushed outside into the street, weapons drawn. Standing on the fountain in the center of the square was Berry. He looked identical to the man they had just interrogated, but his eyes weren't bored. They were glowing with a faint, artificial light.
As the group spread out, Quinna's gaze flickered to a dark corner near the tavern entrance. She choked back a gasp. Slumped against the stone wall, hidden in the shadows, was a lifeless body. It was the real Berry, cold and still, with a single, precise puncture in his chest.
Aero's hands shook as he leveled his tool-gun at the figure on the fountain. "WHO ARE YOU!?"
The incognito figure didn't say a word. It didn't even blink. Instead, it lunged forward with terrifying speed, its limbs moving with a mechanical precision.
From the surrounding alleyways, thirty other figures emerged from the darkness. They were the men from the bar—the victims—all moving in perfect, haunting synchronization.
Their eyes hummed with that same faint, artificial light. Ash froze as he looked into their glowing pupils. The hue, the flickering frequency, and the cold energy it radiated looked almost identical to the Aether light he produced himself.
The mob lunged at the group all at once, thirty dead men moving with the grace of trained assassins.
Before anyone could even pull a trigger or swing a blade, the air around Lucidia snapped.
Her pupils vanished as her eyes turned a blinding, absolute white.
The ground beneath her feet cracked as her Aether surged, swirling with a volatile energy that seemed to pull at the very air around her.
In one quick slash, her movement became a blur that defied the human eye.
The sound was like a single, sharp whistle through the air.
Lucidia skidded to a halt on the far side of the fountain, her sword already clicking back into its sheath.
Behind her, all 31 men—the "Mirror Berry" and the 30 glowing-eyed copies—froze in place.
A split second later, they all collapsed simultaneously, their artificial light flickering out as they hit the cobblestones.
Lucidia stood trembling, her breath heavy, the white in her eyes slowly beginning to recede.
"OH MY! What a strong lady!" Sir Wellington shouted, his voice cracking with terror as he looked at the piles of bodies.
His eyes darted from the corpses to Ash, and his face twisted with sudden realization. "That light... that light in those monsters' eyes is identical to your little aura, detective boy!"
He pointed a shaking finger at Ash, backing away toward the village guards. "The evidence is right there! Only you have that signature! YOU MUST BE THE MURDERER!"