Episode 28 : Mirror of Reflections (4)

Minutes before JoonChul and Mirai had entered the temple, most of 'The Rebels' guild members were looking for the next area for Stage #14 to begin.

The moment they had reached their destination, they immediately went in without preparations. Going in blind, the others half of 'The Rebels' guild didn't know what they had gotten themselves into.

HwanGi, Noel, Crystal, Alaine, Louis and Mya were puzzled by these strange mirror-like walls, noticing their reflections being showcased to them constantly as they were trying to get through this place quickly.

…Only Frostina, Behemoth and Raiden knew what they were getting themselves into.

To tell the truth, the place they were in, was a limitless maze that rotated its paths every now and then to confuse every player and creature that entered it.

Not only was it nauseating to see reflections all the time, there was one more crucial function that this maze could offer.

A maze of reflections, or so to say, a maze of recollection…

Reflecting and resounding the past in everyone's eyes and ears to trap them within the mirror or imprison them inside a tormentful maze.

..Neither one of these two would be good to anyone who was trying to exit this maze.

Even if a person had a good past, this maze would use that as a tool to keep that person inside forever.

Moreover, if one were to show even the slightest reaction of them losing their composure to the reflection of their past, they would instantly be sent into the mirror without making a single noise to notify the others.

To think that this place was much more nightmarish than what the stage description had stated…

Of course, if the players somehow managed to resist the reflection, the 'Helpers' may come and aid the players to guide them toward the exit.

…Even then, those players might have already turned insane from the endless paths and floors they had to cross.

..And it's not confirmed whether those 'Helpers' will come or not. Even if they did come, it would take about a month or more.

…They may be angels and all, but they're the worst.

Pitter-patter…

Anyways, in view of the fact that only a few knew of this place, this made the maze a lot more disturbing since it could take out countless players in a day.

"Was it a mistake that we didn't tell them?"

Raiden walked close beside Frostina, whispering to her with the sleeping Behemoth on his arms.

By then, Frostina answered as cold as ever. "It matters not to me if they are fine or not."

"We aren't so sure about how Sensei could save them or not."

"Who said about saving them?" Frostina raised her eyebrow at Raiden.

Shocked like thunder striking him, Raiden responded in slight disbelief. "Why?! I can't let my only disciple be trapped in there!"

"If you don't want her to be stuck inside this maze, then protect her."

Surprised yet saddened, Raiden slowly blinked his eyes, staring surprisingly at Frostina before sighing in the process.

"I will do exactly that."

"Then, good for you." Frostina faintly grinned.

"Yare Yare…"

* ( "Yare yare" Japanese → English "Good Grief" )

"But is there a reason why we haven't used the strings Mirai gave us? What if we got separated by the maze's changing path?"

…No response from Frostina.

"Erm?" Raiden suddenly stopped when he noticed Frostina had halted her steps. "Are you okay?"

Before asking that question, Raiden became aware of Frostina's shoulders quivering slightly as she seemed like she was experiencing something by herself.

Shortly after, Raiden grumbled when he figured it out, and swiftly turned his glance toward the others behind him. "Has it already started?"

..His eyes went wide from having first witnessed Alaine on her knees, shredding tears of fright in front of the mirror as though she was in a ghastly moment.

Hands wrapped around to protect herself from abuse, Alaine quivered in fear as she grovelled.

"P-Please don't do it.. Don't! Hit! Me!"

"Alaine! It's okay! You're going to be alright!" Snap out of it!"

The puzzled Louis, who was by her side, was clearly worried about her, calling out to her to help her regain her calmness.

"What the.." Noel gasped as he backed away from the wall he was gazing at. "F.. father?"

They weren't the only ones..

Even Mya was fazed by the reflection which only she could see. "Mom..? Dad..?"

Bewildered completely, Louis had no choice but to stare at the people around him, finding only Raiden who appeared to be rational.

Without a doubt, Louis quickly asked Raiden. "Do you know what is happening to them?"

"Explaining it would take long, soon you'll be going to experience it yourself." Raiden answered with clenched fists and a hardened expression.

"What? Don't tell me you're acting odd too.." Louis, having tried to figure out this strange dilemma, couldn't do it alone.

"HwanGi, are you sane?" He called out.

There were no responses…

"HwanGi? Hello?" Louis called.

As there were no replies, Louis started to look for HwanGi, attempting to find where he was.

"Where is he?" Dumbfounded by HwanGi's disappearance, Louis kept on searching until he saw something.. familiar.

"The hospital..?!" Louis gasped.

The vision only he could see, was reflecting on the mirror as he was extremely startled by the imagery in his viewpoint.

"No way.. Not this again.. Don't die on me like this!"

As if Raiden had guessed it, he knew Louis would no doubt fall for the mirror's trick…

As a result, Raiden being the only rational person here, observed the people around him.

"It won't be long for me to be like the others.."

Not long after, he realized that everyone except Behemoth, Crystal and himself were struggling to maintain their solemness.

…It was only a given that they would lose against their past.

"Cute little bunny, I'll be leaving this cat to you. So take good care of him while I get swallowed by my past." Unhappily, Raiden requested from Crystal.

Crystal, who was at a loss for words after witnessing Noel disappearing in front of her eyes, was devastated by her inability to keep Noel safe as per Noelle's request.

..Even still, Crystal shifted her glance at Raiden before spotting Behemoth being laid beside her.

Remained stunned by the unexpected situation, Crystal nodded at Raiden's request as if she wanted to desperately redeem herself by protecting Behemoth instead.

And after that, Raiden mentioned it to her just in case. "Ah, and keep him sleeping for as long as possible. If he wakes up, knock him out so that he wouldn't hear nor see his past."

"I'll try…" Crystal spoke with her sadness written all over her tone.

It was lucid that Raiden could sense and see the sorrow within Crystal's eyes. Thus, he needed to do something to comfort her, even just a little would help.

"Oh, I know."

All of the sudden, a hand was placed on Crystal's head, giving her soft yet warm pats to ease her mind.

"Wait for my Sensei. He'll bring everyone back." Reassuring this poor bunny, Raiden beamed a smile before looking away.

Hiding the fact that his grin was switching to that of a downcast frown, Raiden was slowly but surely feeling his regrets building up yet again.

…

..And after a short moment of enduring it for a bit, Raiden had slowly vanished by the maze's doings.

Now, there were only Crystal and Behemoth left inside this maze…

Crystal gritted her teeth. "..What kind of situation is this..?"

———

In the same stage as 'The Rebels' Guild, yet in a different location, there was a pair who were navigating through this torturous maze.

One of them was the masked figure, walking around while avoiding the reflections from the mirror.

"If you dare to lie to me, I'll fucking kill you. Got that?" The masked figure who was Asher threatened the man beside her.

A man whose appearance was that of a princely type, was guiding the masked figure through the maze.

"Oh, sweetheart! Just be right by my side and I'll protect you, my damsel in distress." The man uttered with a smirk.

At that moment, an eerie sensation was surrounding that man, feeling his body had just come to a stop because of the atmosphere.

"The name's Asher."

"Ah, yes yes. My name is—"

"Shut the fuck up, Blondie. That's your nickname now. Just get us out of here before I make a mess of you."

Even with her mask on, Asher was able to intimidate Blondie enough to make him shut his mouth before resuming back on walking.

After a few minutes had passed, Blondie still couldn't believe that Asher didn't fall for his handsome appearance, which made him a bit frustrated.

"Lovely girls are usually happy to see me or even stand by me." Blondie grumbled to his firefly who was illuminating its light to the area.

Meanwhile, Asher scowled when she heard him. "Ha. You think I'm those types of girls who would fangirl about you? Get a grip, dude. We're in a different world."

"Sweetheart, are you even a girl?"

"Does it matter? Only my life matters, so you better care about yours."

Shutting his lips for a moment, Blondie was faintly getting annoyed by Asher, and was even more suspicious of her words.

Naturally, Blondie stared at Asher in doubts. "How come you didn't fall for my look?"

"You look ugly as hell."

The infuriated Blondie stood in front of Asher, standing for a second before posing a lot to make her fall for him.

…Next thing he did was truly shocking.

When he was about to take off his shirt to reveal his abs, he snickered at Asher as if he knew his looks would work on her.

In actuality, he was using his Hidden Skill to charm Asher so that she could join his fandom.

"Come join my kingdom of fans!" Blondie declared.

"..." Asher with no response, stood there looking at Blondie. 'What is with this creep?'

"Yes, that's right, sweetheart. Adore me!" Blondie flipped his hair before resting his hand on Asher's shoulder.

..He totally shouldn't be doing that..

As it seemed like Blondie was finally capturing Asher's heart, he had stepped closer to Asher, smirking like a fool yet still charming.

At that point, Asher had enough and viciously daunted the foolish Blondie. "You got the nerves to try that, huh?"

In a blink of an eye, Asher generated a disk of her portal in her palm, pulling Blondie's arm and shoving it in her portal before closing it shut.

Splatter!

The moment the portal closed, an arm was dropped from beside Blondie which prompted him to scream from having to witness his bloody arm.

Although it wasn't a long scream of agony, Blondie was quick to endure the pain and got to drink his HP potion to recover his arm back.

"Urghh..!"

During this, Blondie was furious after regaining a little of his composure, shattering the glass bottle with his grasp when he started to bellow at Asher.

"Bloody hell, mate! Whatcha do that for?!"

Not a single care, Asher replied straightforwardly. "Just teaching you a lesson."

"Yeah, mate! But you don't have to go that far!"

"What can I do? I hate spoiled boys like you."

After a short moment, Blondie's arm had healed back to normal as if it hadn't been cut off yet.

He spoke while moving his recovered arm around. "You're quite a cheeky girl, aren't you? You even ruined my perfect costume."

"Shut the hell up and get your asses back to getting us outta here."

Tired of this pointless crap, Asher summoned another of her portal disk on her palm, frightening Blondie as much as she could to make him shut up entirely.

And it worked successfully.

Fearful, Blondie muttered, already forgetting the words he was about to shout at Asher.

"Uh.. I..."

After that, Blondie changed the subject to something else so that Asher wouldn't kill him because of her wrath.

"Can't we have a break? I'm extremely knackered!" Blondie begged Asher with his puppy eyes that had been enhanced with his charm.

Facepalming her mask as she watched this pitiful soul, Asher just waved her hand to indicate that Blondie could have a rest.

"Rest faster and work quicker. I ain't got time to be watching my reflection." Asher grunted.

"You can count on me, mate!"

Not even a minute had passed that Asher started to question herself and her luck for encountering such a person.

Asher thought. 'If it weren't for his ability to track down the exit, I wouldn't have teamed up with a loser like him.'

'Dang it. I'm such an unlucky fella.'

While she was pondering, Asher suddenly noticed Blondie wasn't actually taking a break. Instead, he was admiring himself from the mirror wall, doing sexy poses and acting like a handsome spoiled man.

"Freaking disgusting…" Asher scowled.

Not only that, Blondie was also shamelessly talking to himself while having a rose in between his lips.

"Oh, aren't you just lovely?" Blondie complimented himself while Asher felt like she wanted to gag.

'Oh for fuck sake..' Asher bawled in her head, almost making her feel like she was experiencing an explosion of anger.

'What kind of horrific nightmare is this?! It's worse than the reflections!!'

..No doubt, she was struggling agonizingly at this moment..