I Became A Ghost In A Horror Game-Chapter 43: [Boss Battle] Ella, the Mirror Ghost of the School
The school served as the first barrier, keeping the lurking horrors at bay.
Nothing more, nothing less.
Even during my student years, I never particularly liked school.
...So why was I feeling this way?
Why was I so angry?
If Mary’s stage was shifting to the school, shouldn’t I be feeling fear at the thought of her regaining power?
Yet, my fists clenched involuntarily.
Perhaps the school held more meaning for me than I had realized.
“This place is precious to me.”
A place filled with memories of the children.
“...So what?”
Mary’s response was as cold as ever.
“That’s why you need to put everything back, you damn hag!!!”
Losing all reason, I lunged at Mary, attacking her head-on.
But now that she had regained her strength, she dodged with more precision and speed than before.
She manipulated the vines, coiling them tightly around my body.
Blinded by anger, I was easily ensnared.
With my joints bound, I couldn’t muster any strength.
Mary, ever the meticulous one, didn’t stop at restraining me—she anchored me to the hallway floor before finally descending from her eerie floating state.
“Ughhh...!”
“Ella... it’s useless. This is Mary’s stage now.”
“Put it... back!”
I screamed even though I knew it was pointless.
Like a child throwing a tantrum.
The part of me that had once been a rational adult was long gone.
Desperately, I tried shifting into another mirror within the school.
Nothing.
“It won’t work, Ella. Every mirror in the school is covered in my vines. Your mirror-jumping ability is annoying, after all...”
“Shut up...!”
“There are still mirrors in Ella’s mansion, aren’t there? Why don’t you just run away? You could escape there... Is the school really that precious to you?”
Each of Mary’s words struck deep.
The more desperate the situation, the more my true feelings threatened to surface.
Explaining them to Mary, though, was the last thing I wanted to do.
Instead, frustration bubbled over.
“This is so unfair! Why is there such a huge gap between us when we’re both bosses?! Mirrors are older than telephones! I’ve got way more credibility!”
“Hm... Ella’s mad again. So loud. Mary doesn’t like loud things. But Mary is a kind spirit. I’ll end it painlessly...”
Chhhhhh—
[4... 4... 4... 4... 4... 4...]
As Mary released her ominous energy, the school’s ceiling speakers crackled to life.
A telephone is a machine that transmits sound.
By linking herself to the broadcasting system, she was sending out a cursed voice—one that signaled death.
Slowly but surely, she was trying to kill me.
[4... 4... 4... 4... 4... 4... 4...]
My heart pounded erratically, my head burning.
A faint taste of blood spread across my tongue.
Mary whispered.
“Lose your way, Ella. Just like Mary did.”
Was this it for me?
Why had I even ended up in this game?
Dying so meaninglessly after being sucked into a horror game—
What a ridiculous joke.
If only this were all just a dream.
“Lost, trembling in fear, desperately searching for someone to save you. Maybe, Ella... this is what everyone feels right before they die.”
Ah... a dream.
If this really were like the ending of Alice in Wonderland, I’d just wake up and start playing the game again.
If that were the reality waiting for me...
If that were the truth...
Yeah, no. I’d hate that.
I let out a bitter chuckle.
Even if I was going to die, I wanted this to be real.
As I clung to the rose necklace the children had given me, I slowly closed my eyes.
I wanted to keep my promise.
[4... 4... 4... “1.2.3” 4...]
“?!”
“?!”
Something was happening.
A different voice had cut into the speaker’s cursed chant.
It was overriding the curse...?
And the voice—
It was one I knew all too well.
It was Ha-rim’s voice!
["1.2.3."..4.."1.2.3."..4.."1.2.3"..4...]
The curse was weakening.
What the hell? This wasn’t in any of the game’s strategies!
...But I think I got it.
If this was a gimmick-based curse that amplified its power by repeating the unlucky number four—
Then inserting a different number in between was disrupting the repetition, diluting its effect.
The ominous chant was being twisted into nothing more than a mundane counting exercise.
With its core ritual interrupted, the curse was losing its power.
“Ella! Can you hear me? I’m sorry for not listening to you before! But we’re in the same club, after all. It didn’t feel right for you to be all alone... Hehe! You get what I mean, right?”
The kids...
If they were here, they’d be in danger.
This was a really bad situation.
So why did I feel so relieved?
Fools never know their limits.
And when those fools are your equals, it’s even worse.
Mary muttered.
“Ella’s longing (death) has faded...”
That’s not fair.
Mary swung her dagger at my head.
Crap. I should’ve broken free from the vines earlier!
CLANG!
A metallic sound rang out instead of the sensation of cold steel splitting my skull.
Reflexively, I opened my eyes.
Standing before me was Soo-ho, shield raised.
“Soo-ho...”
“Ella. You’re strong, but sometimes... even you need help.”
Soo-ho wielded his shield with a skill I’d never seen before, smoothly deflecting Mary’s attacks like an immovable fortress.
“I saw you standing alone once, separated from the others. I guess I wasn’t imagining it—you really did look lonely.”
Did I? I don’t remember that...
“Be honest. You knew this was going to happen one day, didn’t you?”
“...”
“You always fight alone.”
Kyung-min stepped closer, adding,
“Ella, just like how you’ve protected us... we want to protect you, too. Soo-ho, Eun-jung, all of us. It’s been so long since we first met, I don’t even remember anymore.”
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“That’s right! Ella is our friend! So... I’m scared, but I’ll stay with you!”
Eun-jung chimed in.
It was almost comically scripted, like something straight out of a shonen manga.
I was beyond embarrassed.
But I wasn’t about to show it.
Biting down on the vine, I tore myself free and stood up.
Then, just to mess with them, I threw out a joke.
“Hey, Kyung-min, who’s prettier—her or me?”
“What?!”
“You’re hesitating? Weren’t you the one who said my eyes were pretty? You player.”
“Haah... Seriously... why am I always the easy target...?”
I smiled.
Mary, irritated by my expression, spoke bluntly.
“Even with more numbers, nothing changes, Ella. Mary keeps getting stronger, and you’re still weak.”
“Mmhmm. But you’re a friendless loser, so I can’t really take you seriously.”
“....”
Mary lashed out more violently than before.
Soo-ho focused on defense while Kyung-min’s chains, despite their strength, had trouble against Mary’s light frame.
Even so, Mary was unable to deal any meaningful damage.
She tried casting a wide-area curse—
But Eun-jung rang the Sacred Chime, purifying it instantly.
“Tch.”
This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.
As Mary waved her hand, the vines lashed out at the kids. I immediately cut them down.
I knew every gimmick in this stage by heart.
As long as I focused on defense, I wouldn’t fall.
If James and Maria successfully carried out their mission, then victory would be ours!
“Ella. You’re holding onto hope. But you’re a fool. If I had my full strength, I could kill all of you in an instant. It’s only a matter of time.”
“No, you’re the fool, Mary.”
Mary tilted her head, a question mark practically floating above her head.
She mulled over my words, and then—she noticed it.
Mary turned her gaze toward the schoolyard. The sunflowers that had been growing there had stopped.
They weren’t spreading anymore.
“Why...?”
“I’m just as surprised, honestly. Ha-rim really is something else.”
“...!”
There was only one reason why the stage wasn’t advancing.
Ha-rim was dismantling it.
—Hmm... Since these phone booths grew like plants, maybe digging up the ground will stop them from working?
—When you hear the ringing, there’s an impulse to pick up the receiver. Ah, what if I just wear earplugs?
—Ugh! Ignoring the payphone and throwing away my cell phone only made a new phone grow from my clothes and force a connection! But if I hold my phone, it just redirects to that instead. Wait, what? Who the hell is Satoru-kun?
—Ah. If I hold onto any kind of device, it forces the connection there. So if I carry a walkie-talkie and just keep talking without letting go of the button, I won’t get attacked! Because it’s one-way communication! Found the exploit!
—What happens if I make another entity listen to the cursed voice from the receiver? Eh? It got exorcised? Satoru-kun, can you hear me? Hello?
“If the entities and traps inside a stage are removed, the corruption weakens too. I just realized this myself, but Mary... your real opponent isn’t me.”
A protagonist is someone who moves forward without needing a guide.
Even if Ha-rim had never met me, she would’ve survived.
Mary said nothing.
She simply kept attacking.
We blocked every strike, and time continued to pass.
Like a relentless tug-of-war, we fought on, locked in a stalemate.
James... are you still not done?
Ha-rim must be reaching her limit by now...
“...Ella.”
Mary suddenly stopped attacking and stepped back.
She seemed to be thinking.
Then, as if reaching a conclusion, she nodded.
“You’re just stalling for time.”
“...!”
Damn it. She figured it out!
“You sent someone to Mary’s home. Ahh... at this rate, Mary might actually lose. If that happens... no one will be able to find Mary.”
Her voice wavered.
Mary yanked her hat down, fidgeting restlessly.
We stayed still, simply watching her.
We were all exhausted, subtly catching our breath.
“...Then I’ll just use this.”
“...? What’s that?”
“A gift.”
The item in Mary’s hand belonged to the M.P. series—just like the necklace from before.
The Trauma Music Box.
But I had never seen that series in the game before.
Its name had existed in the game files, but the item itself had never appeared.
And yet, she had it.
Unless she was the developer, how the hell did she get her hands on it?
Mary wound up the music box.
From the darkness, a slow, eerie melody crept out.
A classic horror movie trope.
Just in case, I ripped apart the protective talisman I had prepared.
It was a one-time use, but better safe than sorry.
“...?”
Wait.
Why isn’t it activating?
Where’s the twinkle effect?
“Ella! Stay with me, Ella!”
Kyung-min’s voice called out.
But my eyelids were growing heavier.
Darkness seeped into my vision.
[Status Ailment: Trauma]
I was inside a movie theater.
A dusty, rundown theater.
Neglected for years, most of the seats were broken.
Even the screen had tears running across it.
But that didn’t stop the film from playing.
Expressionless, I reached for the popcorn beside me and stared at the screen.
My parents were there.
And so was the old me.
But something about it felt... off.
On the screen, my parents and I locked eyes as I walked home from school.
They averted their gaze and passed by in a hurry.
Avoiding me.
At home, they never met my eyes.
They left food outside my door, refusing any contact.
That cold, distant life continued for a long time.
Then, one day—
Both of them died in a drowsy driving accident.
I held a small, quiet funeral.
And the next day, as if nothing had happened, I went back to school.
To class.
As usual.
My only friend, my senior, reacted strangely when they saw me.
(Why are you like this?)
What do you mean, senior?
(Wouldn’t it be easier to just cry? If you frowned, got angry, threw a tantrum—at least then, you’d look human.)
That’s a strange thing to say.
Did I do something wrong?
(You’re completely abnormal. There’s something missing inside you. You’ve got a mental disorder, don’t you?)
That’s a cruel thing to say.
I laughed at your jokes. I reacted to your pranks. I got angry when you went too far.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with me.
But my senior looked at me with disgust.
(That’s why you didn’t shed a single tear when your parents died.)
...
(...If I died, would you not cry for me either?)
...
My senior said that.
And then, shortly after, they died in an accident.
People who had always avoided me—who whispered that I brought bad luck—
They started looking at me like a murderer.
My parents died, and then my closest friend followed right after?
A tragic coincidence.
The next day, I stood before my senior’s grave.
(...If I died, would you not cry for me either?)
Their words echoed in my mind.
A normal person would have cried here.
But no tears came.
What am I?
A person who can’t even cry when someone dies?
Someone who doesn’t deserve to have friends?
I threw my popcorn aside.
A voice whispered in my ear.
My head throbbed, and I clutched it with one hand.
In the other—
A small, hand-held mirror.
The reflection showed me standing there.
No.
Not me.
Ella.
I had entered Ella’s body.
At first, I had acted like her, reacting impulsively because my body was affected.
But after adjusting, I thought my actions were entirely my own.
I thought my feelings for the kids were mine.
But I had become a spirit.
And spirits are shaped by human thoughts.
Because the kids thought of me as a friend, I started thinking of them as my friends, too.
The temper, the emotional outbursts—
Those were habits formed because of the body’s influence.
My own personality had been rewritten.
The voice whispered.
[You are a mirror. Without someone to reflect, you are nothing.]
My feelings for the kids—
They weren’t really mine.
[You couldn’t even cry when your friend died. Do you really think you can feel anything at all?]
“Ah... Ah...”
I had only borrowed Ella’s body to reflect her to the children.
Even though I had lost my closest friend—
Even though I had endured a painful farewell—
I had never felt anything.
Could I really have harbored something as sentimental as friendship for the children?
“Ahhh...!”
I am a mirror. I am a mirror ghost.
A person who doesn’t shed tears even when a friend dies. No—
Not even a person.
The bond between me and the children was nothing but a fleeting illusion—
Not a single relationship of my own making existed.
I looked into the mirror.
Only Ella stood there.
Empty.
It would be better to just disappear.
I closed my eyes.
“Wait!!! What the hell are you closing your eyes for?!”
Huh?
Someone burst through the screen—
And sucker-punched me in the stomach?!
“Gah?!”
I tumbled across the floor.
Why the hell does everyone love punching me in the gut so much...?!
“Urgh...”
“Come on, you’re making this boring! Can’t you see the kids outside, barely holding on?!”
“You’re... Ella?”
Standing before me was Ella.
She looked down at me with a mixture of disdain and disappointment.
“What? Never seen me before? Well, I guess you wouldn’t. I don’t show up in the mirrors outside. So? How does it feel, getting to admire someone as gorgeous as me in person?”
“Aren’t you supposed to be dead?”
“...”
“You swapped bodies with me, and then immediately got crushed by a chandelier.”
“...”
“...Wait. Are you... embarrassed—Yikes!”
Ella swung her knife at me, cutting off my sentence before I could finish.
Yeah, she was definitely humiliated by how stupidly she died.
Still, the moment she heard my startled shriek, the corners of her lips curled upward.
“Woooow. Did you seriously squeal just now?! You sound like a total girl! Should I start calling you ‘big sister’? Hahaha!”
Her smugness was unmistakable.
This was definitely the Ella.
Annoying.
So this was how Kyung-min felt whenever I teased him...
I’m sorry, Kyung-min.
“I am not a girl! I just got used to this body, that’s all!”
I shuddered.
Hearing my voice scream like that while knowing I was a guy?
It felt wrong.
“Ohhh, I know exactly what you’re thinking. But listen, big bro—this place is kinda special. Your soul is still a girl’s, you know?”
“...What?”
I looked down at myself.
This place wasn’t reality.
I had assumed it was some subconscious mental space—like something out of a comic—
So I figured I’d be back in my original body.
But—
“What the hell is this?!”
Ella giggled at my panicked reaction.
My hair was blonde like hers, but styled differently.
No buns.
The clothes were slightly different too.
But... why was the chest size exactly the same?
“See? You don’t look exactly like me. You just resemble me a little!”
“Thank god for that—! But why do I look like this?!”
Did my soul turn into a girl, too?!
“Beats me~! When I died, I just kinda snapped back into my original body. Though I wasn’t fully conscious at first.”
So Ella had been awake for a while.
I took a deep breath, trying to process it all.
“If that’s the case... why didn’t you take your body back?”
“Hm. Maybe because of this.”
She pointed at the necklace around her neck—
The one the kids had given her as a token of their friendship.
Startled, I quickly checked my own neck.
...The same necklace was there.
I let out a slow breath, my chest loosening in relief.
Ella smirked.
“See? Nothing to worry about. Now, get going! The kids are about to die out there! If you crawl through the hole I tore in the screen, you can escape!”
She shoved me toward the exit.
“Why are you helping me?”
“......”
She froze.
Ella was a murderous ghost.
In the game’s story, she didn’t care about the kids.
She treated them like toys, tormenting them until they died.
So why ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) was she worried about them now?
When she finally spoke, her voice was quiet.
“...Ella’s been hiding in your subconscious for a while. And I realized something.
Every time I saw those kids through your eyes...
I felt a surge of hatred.
It was natural. Almost like instinct.”
“...Like Piero.”
So Ella felt the same kind of bloodlust toward the kids.
“I took my time thinking about it.
Why did I feel that way?
And then, I found a clue.
It was my wish.”
Ella’s wish was to find playmates—
And then kill them.
“But you know what?
I think that’s a fake wish.”
“A fake wish...? Then what’s the real one?”
Ella shrugged.
“No idea.
But I have a feeling...
That the moment I figure it out, it’ll be my final moment.
Still—
I do know one thing for sure.”
She poked me right in the chest.
“You and I... we’re heading in the same direction.”
“My wish...?”
Ella took my hand and led me toward the exit.
“Sorry, big bro.
For everything.”
“....”
“Shameless, I know.
But please—go back and help the kids.
I can’t do it. Not when I still feel like killing them.”
“...Are you on their side?”
“...Don’t doubt me.
I am you, and I’m not you.
Like a reflection in a mirror.”
She held the necklace against her chest, gently stroking it.
“You and I both treasure those kids.
So please—just this once, help them.”
“....”
“Also—stop doubting yourself so much.
Even if you understand something logically, you won’t know it in your soul until you experience it firsthand.”
“...I don’t get it.”
“It means that just sitting around worrying won’t help you overcome your fears or fulfill your wish!
Now, stop wasting time!
Mary’s about to stab Kyung-min!”
I jolted and sprinted toward the exit.
Behind me, Ella called out one last time.
“I’m giving you all my power—
So go show them an adventure!
Let them see that this strange world isn’t just terrifying—
That it’s a place where they can experience meetings, partings, joy, sorrow...
That this world can mean something!”
She waved as I vanished through the exit.
And then—
She was gone.
My vision snapped back into focus.
In the reflection of the window, I saw Ella’s image.
That reflection was me.
And yet, it wasn’t.
Ella was a mirror ghost.
She could only exist within the reflection of a mirrored surface.
That’s why she had never been visible outside of mirrors.
The reflection and the real thing could never both exist at the same time.
And yet—
Right now, I was seeing my own reflection.
Even if the reflection looked like Ella—
I was me.
I had separated myself from Ella.
[Condition met. Status Ailment: Cured]
“Hello, Mary.”
Mary looked at me, puzzled.
“...We’ve never met before.”
“Ella... you’re speaking strangely.”
The children were bound by vines.
Mary looked confident.
The sunflowers in the schoolyard were still growing.
The children were still trapped.
She thought she had already won.
But that was her biggest mistake.
“...!”
I released a wave of energy.
The vines recoiled, wilting rapidly.
Some of the sunflowers shriveled and died.
Several phone booths rotted and crumbled into dust.
“...Is this... a mirror?”
Where the sunflowers once grew, mirrors sprouted in their place.
The vines couldn’t support their weight and snapped.
“Aaah... Now this feels like a real boss fight.”
Mary’s face darkened.
I raised my sword and pointed it at her.
“This place—
Is Ella’s Stage now.”
“Get out.”
