The Demon Lord’s Castle, built by the Mirror Queen—future Eliane—had vanished.
But the aftermath? Absolutely overwhelming.
The betrayal of a saintess, who looked all too familiar…
The rare cooperation between Eliane, Luna, and Irene on a single stream…
Compared to everything else, even those felt like footnotes.
––
[Dungeon] Summary of the Mirror Queen Incident
[Posted by: KirurukKiruruk]
(Image of Irene’s party entering the Mirror Queen’s castle)
(GIF of the Emperor sweeping away monsters in the hallway)
(GIF revealing the Mirror Queen’s true identity as Eliane)
(GIF of Irene defeating future Eliane and turning off the stream)
If you missed this stream live, your life is officially worse.
LOL
Every single moment was an all-time legend.
First of all, to understand any of this, we need to explain who future Eliane is…
[Likes: 4712]
[Dislikes: 289]
[492 Comments]
Anonymous Hero 22452: When the Emperor showed up I thought it was a prank cam LMAO
↳ Anonymous Hero 4324: Honestly I had no idea what was even happening
Anonymous Hero 3434: So what’s with that whole apocalypse future Eliane mentioned?
↳ SwordOnly: No clue. But survival gear prices are skyrocketing LOL
––
The legendary Hero Exina’s arrival, imperial reinforcements,
The Mirror Queen’s identity being Eliane,
And the final cryptic warning about the world ending with my death…
Any one of these would shake the empire to its core.
But they all happened at once.
The hero forums exploded—no, every corner of the internet descended into chaos.
[The Hero Guild’s community has been temporarily shut down.]
[Reason: Server Overload]
It was only natural that the forums went dark.
Even survival gear prices were surging as people prepared for the end.
Of course, none of this really hit home for me…
Well, except for one part:
“The world ends when I die.”
What kind of event could possibly involve something like that?
The Mirror Queen was a terrifying threat, sure.
But she had spent decades holed up in the Demon Lord’s Castle.
She had the time and power to grow strong.
And right now, there wasn’t a single person in the world who could beat me.
So for something to appear out of nowhere and bring about the end…
No matter how hard I thought about it, I couldn’t come up with anything.
Maybe the Salvation Saintess…
But even she retreated after all that.
Would she really come back ten years later just to destroy the world?
Not likely.
While I was lost in thought, a voice chimed in beside me.
“Been a while, huh.”
“You mean me, or the castle?”
“Hmm, both. But if I had to choose… I missed your chubby little cheeks.”
“…Huh.”
Right.
Future Eliane was still technically a high-level war criminal.
So I used teleportation magic to zip off to the Nameless Demon Realm.
From there, I walked.
I needed time to sort through my thoughts anyway.
“It has been a while since the Nameless Demon Castle looked this intact.”
Before long, the crumbling old castle came into view.
Even though it had been reinforced inside and Lumynil had done her best…
There was still something undeniably shabby about it.
Future Eliane’s expression darkened.
It wasn’t just nostalgia.
“What I did… there’s no forgiving it, is there?”
“Obviously not.”
Among all the chaos, there was one thing everyone agreed on:
Future Eliane was the villain.
No questions asked.
“You’re a massive criminal. And your goal wasn’t even world domination—it was to save one person.”
Right after I said that, she suddenly leaned her face in.
What the—why?
“You’re making me uncomfortable.”
Her breath was that close.
She grabbed my cheek with one hand and replied—
“I might be an irredeemable villain… but it wasn’t just one person.”
“Then who was it?”
“The whole world.”
“…Wait. Did we, like, date in the future or something?”
What the hell did the future me even do to make her like this?
I couldn’t make sense of it at all.
If it were Lumynil, I could understand.
I have done a lot for her.
But Eliane?
There’s no way, unless we were actually lovers or something.
Hmm… That wasn’t in the lorebook, was it?
Eliane thought for a long moment before answering.
“…We weren’t lovers.”
“Then what were we?”
“Just… really close. Like, really close. That’s why it still hurts.”
“….”
“It’s like talking to a friend who forgot every memory they had of me.”
She stared silently up at the sky.
Most likely, she was saying her own farewell to the Irene from her future.
Another silence settled between us.
Talking to Future Eliane was never smooth—barely five sentences before it fell apart.
What could I even call this?
We both wanted to talk, but we kept unintentionally stepping on landmines.
Even so, neither of us stopped trying.
Neither I nor Eliane.
“So, what are you going to call me now?”
“Eliane, obviously.”
“That’s going to get confusing with the other Eliane, don’t you think?”
“Then… Future Eliane?”
“Terrible naming sense.”
Then what do you suggest, if not Future Eliane?
I gave her a sharp look.
She burst out laughing, surprisingly.
“How about ‘Mirian’? You know, taking the ‘Mi’ from ‘Future’?”
“You already had that prepared, didn’t you.”
“Obviously. I know your trash naming sense already.”
“And yet you’re asking me to name things?”
“Of course. By the way, the sword I’m carrying? You named that too.”
Mirian pulled slightly aside her cloak to reveal the sword on her hip.
Now that I think about it, she hadn’t used that sword once during the fight.
I figured she just didn’t need it, since my sword was clearly better.
But if she wasn’t going to use it, why even wear it around?
“It’s a precious gift from you, remember? Wanna give it a name now?”
The way Mirian laughed made me feel oddly competitive.
Hey, my naming sense isn’t that bad!
Time passed as I racked my brain…
Until finally, I struck gold.
“Elian-Calibur.”
“Wow, I just got chills.”
“What now?”
“How do you manage to come up with the exact same name again?”
“So is that a compliment or an insult?”
“That’s a secret.”
I wanted to press her more, but we had already arrived at the gate of the Demon King Castle.
Just as I reached to open the door, it began opening on its own—from the inside.
A spell?
I glanced at Mirian, about to ask—
“Waaah!!”
A loud wail rang out from within.
I immediately guessed the cause.
So Lumil saw me through the castle window and came running out, huh.
“I thought you were really dead, Irene! You’re really back, right? Huuu…”
With a familiar sob, a fluffball bigger than expected tackled me into a hug.
Ow.
Especially the horns on her head stabbing me in the face.
“Why’d you take so long!”
“What do you mean? It hasn’t even been a week!”
“No! It felt like forever!”
“…Huh?”
It took quite a while to calm Lumil down.
There were a lot of reasons, sure…
But the main one?
Definitely Future Lumil.
Or should I say… Mimil.
Thanks to her, we had to go through the entire story about Mirian.
By the time we finished catching up, the sun had already set.
“I see…”
“Don’t ‘I see’ me. Didn’t you watch the broadcast?”
“I couldn’t…”
“Huh?”
And then I finally noticed the state of the castle.
It wasn’t just kinda shabby—it was completely wrecked.
“Stupid heroes kept showing up uninvited! Saying stuff like ‘Free loot inside!’”
“Ah…”
Now it made sense why the Irene dolls and Friess were missing.
They were probably still out there trying to protect the castle.
Judging by how beat up the place looked,
Lumil must’ve fought through quite a few skirmishes herself.
“Then the terminal exploded! And even worse, I got hit with time distortion magic!”
“Wait—time distortion magic?”
Without a word, Lumil left the room.
***
When we came back into the room with the others, something was clearly wrong.
“…Why aren’t they moving?”
“F-Friess?”
Irene tilted her head at the sight of the frozen Friess and Irene Doll.
Mirian, on the other hand, looked completely stunned just at Friess’s presence.
Lumil answered first.
“They were hit by a time distortion spell. Even after the caster died, it didn’t wear off…”
Irene was about to just respond with an “ah, makes sense” and move on, but Mirian’s shocked reaction made her stop cold.
“Friess… how are you still alive?”
Naturally, Friess—frozen by the time spell—didn’t answer.
Irene glanced at her, puzzled.
Mirian cleared her throat awkwardly a few times, then finally spoke.
“In my world, Friess died because of gambling.”
“…Did she drink poison or something?”
“No, not like that. She just… found out something way too horrifying.”
Eliane let out a heavy sigh.
It must’ve been long ago—Mirian didn’t seem too shaken anymore.
“Loan sharks. After burning through all her money, Friess started borrowing behind my back.”
Another sigh followed.
Irene was about to say she didn’t need to continue…
But Mirian pushed through and finished the story anyway.
“By the time I tried to find her, it was already too late. The last trace of her led to a slave market.”
Mirian looked around and muttered,
“…So what the hell happened here that let her survive?”
Irene raised her hand slightly.
“I… bought her?”
“…You bought her?”
“Friess is the Demon King Castle’s maid now.”
“……?”
After listening to the full story,
Mirian suddenly grabbed Irene’s shoulders with both hands.
“That’s enough.”
Before Irene could ask what she meant,
Mirian continued.
“Irene… if what your future self said is true, then we can stop the destruction. Maybe.”
It was a statement that felt heavy—
like something big was finally starting to move.