Chapter 35: Trapped
"You know something, kid? I really thank you for coming; I would have died if you hadn’t," the voice spoke up again.
’Dead? What does he mean?’
But amidst such a situation, Morden knew he couldn’t afford to think too much; it was time for action, and that was exactly what he was going to do.
Activating boost again, Morden charged through the room towards another door in the house, hoping to find the man in there, but the moment he entered, Morden was immediately taken aback.
Thankfully, the man was actually in the room; that wasn’t what shocked him. What shocked him was the fact that the man was currently sitting comfortably on a chair, not appearing like someone currently in a battle.
He was just about to charge straight at the person when he suddenly felt the urge that the person wasn’t real.
’An illusion,’
After coming to that conclusion, Morden didn’t bother rushing; he instead remained calm, turned around, and got ready to head into another room.
"Oh wow, it seems you aren’t too foolish; you prepared."
"You are actually able to identify illusions now; that makes things even more interesting."
"Let’s see which skill is greater, my ability to create illusions or your ability to detect them."
Upon getting out of the room, Morden turned to look at another door before charging straight at it.
Unfortunately, this time, the door was actually an illusion.
BAM! His head hit the wall heavily, sending him flying back dizzily.
"Shit," he cursed out loud, but he couldn’t afford to sit around for too long.
Morden rose back up and looked towards the last doorway, concluding that he must be there.
"Come, kid, get in here and let us test it out."
"Which will overcome the other?"
Morden activated the boost again, but not to increase his speed, but to increase his durability.
[Durability +20(Temp)]
In case the doorway was another illusion, but it wasn’t.
Morden charged through and eventually arrived in the room, but the room looked completely different on the inside.
Instead of being a normal room, it looked a lot more like an infinitely dark expanse; it was so dark he couldn’t see more than 1.5 meters in front of him.
"Welcome, kid, Expanse of Devouring Darkness."
"An infinitely dark space that is completely under my control. You see, kid, this is another lesson you need to learn."
"Bearers can have more than one ability. Have you ever for a moment thought I could have another ability?"
"I am sure you haven’t."
"I am a second-ring bearer, which means I have undergone my second trial and I have survived."
"Now let’s see how you will survive, two abilities working in PERFECT TANDEM!!!!"
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Three flying knives came from all around Morden.
When they entered his visual, only one thought dominated his mind.
’Which of them is an illusion?’
He had guessed that the darkness was so his opponent could sneak around and sneak in some real attacks among the illusions.
After checking through the three of them, Morden concluded.
’They are all fake.’
At that moment, the three knives landed and dug into his flesh in different areas, two in his shoulder and one hit his chest, but he didn’t mind.
He could feel the pain, but he knew it was all fake.
He decided to stop being so passive and actually attack, so he looked straight ahead and immediately started charging forward.
He ran through the expansive darkness with no obstacles whatsoever until he noticed two figures in visual range; both appeared to be middle-aged, ordinary-looking men dressed in dark trench coats with a white mask hanging by their waists.
Morden looked at the two figures approaching from both sides.
’Left or right, real or fake,’
"I chose left."
He turned towards the man on the left, and he sent a sword slash straight at him, ignoring the other one.
Cling!
The sound of two metals colliding rang out; the person had blocked it while the person on the right had landed an attack.
Seeing his advances blocked, the man immediately pushed Morden’s sword away before slowly backing away into the darkness.
’I need to end this as soon as possible,’
The man was obviously higher leveled than he was, so he had more vital energy, but Morden was already running low after using a boost consecutively.
’I just hope this works,’
He activated the boost one more time.
[Intelligence +20(temp)]
Morden was now able to see everything clearly; all second guesses vanished, and it all cleared up.
’He is three meters to my left,’
Despite seeing his opponent as clear as day, Morden looked as confused as ever; he looked all around him with that same face before running towards what appeared to be a random direction.
He was running straight at the man.
Kneeling next to a wall, the man watched Morden charge straight at him with a shocked face.
’Can he see me? Impossible,’
’Unless his intelligence stat surpasses mine, there’s absolutely no way.’
With that little reassurance, the man remained in his position while he watched Morden approach.
To avoid exposing his plans, Morden stopped in his tracks and looked around with a confused face again, though he knew full well that with one sudden burst he would be able to touch that person.
[Speed +20(temp)]
With his last bit of vital energy, Morden increased his speed to the max, crossing the distance before the man could even finish his thoughts.
’Wha-’
Bang!
The hit of his sword hit the man with so much force that it almost knocked him unconscious, as a result canceling the darkness and revealing a completely empty room.
"He must have prepared this place beforehand."
Morden didn’t kill him, not yet; he needed answers first.
"You are already completely in my grasp, so don’t try anything funny at all."
"The moment I notice a single illusion, you are dead, and believe me, I will notice."
"Since you like talking so much, I give you the chance to speak, but only to answer my questions."
"Is that clear?" Morden said with a stern voice.
The man that had previously been sounding so high and mighty was now shivering in place now.
"Yes, yes, it is," the man answered.
’Just as I thought, people that use illusion and are usually physically weak look at him being so complain-y now that he knows they don’t work on me.’
"First question: When was the first time you saw my face?"
Hearing his question, the man’s expression changed; he wanted to shout and curse at Morden, but realizing his condition, he could only keep quiet and answer.
"That night in that abandoned building," he answered.
’Then he isn’t the one that came to my house then, because I am sure he isn’t lying, but there must be some sort of affiliation, especially if that ghost was real.’
"Was that red ghost I saw real?"
Morden watched the man go silent and extremely hesitant to speak.
"Do you really want to dare me?" Morden said while raising his fist.
"No, no, no, it isn’t; the red ghost was just an illusion."
"Where did you see it? Why did you create the illusion? Why were you in that building?" Morden suddenly asked a barrage of questions, looking at the man with blazing eyes and awaiting an answer, but he received nothing.
The man wasn’t staring at him anymore; the man was looking at something behind him.
"Please don’t kill me, please don’t kill me. I tried to do it... I tried... but... I... I underestimated him," the man shouted in an almost mad voice.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Morden asked.
"Wait, what? He shouldn’t be so scared of me.’ He focused more on the man’s face.
’He isn’t looking at me; he is looking...behind me.’
All the alarms in Morden’s head immediately began screaming as loud as possible.
"She told me to; she told me to do everything," the man finally answered while pointing behind him.
As fast as he could, Morden turned around to check what the hell was behind him, and that was when he saw piercing red eyes in the slight darkness.
"Mona?"
"Hello to you too, the one who shouldn’t be."