Chapter 581: Carnival of Desire [13]

"Quickly, get to the next game area!" Lily said hurriedly.

Perhaps continuing to participate in the games was the only way they could slow down the progression of this contamination...

Meanwhile, in the open courtyard of the Night Circus, which had already been completely burned to the ground—

"They sure left quickly," Adrian sighed. "I was actually planning to kindly remind her that there are plenty of ’refreshment stalls’ along the path to the Mirror Maze."

Ember tucked the chain-wrapped whip behind his back and walked over to stand beside Adrian. "We should leave too. Who knows when this place will ’come back to life’?"

Nick couldn’t help speaking up as well. "This place is over too. Can I take off this makeup now?"

Adrian couldn’t help looking toward Nick. He chuckled, then raised one hand and pinched Nick’s cheek a few times, immediately sending powder-like makeup cascading down.

"Quite cute, actually. You can leave it on."

"Rip!"

At that very moment, a somewhat piercing sound rang out. When they looked over, they saw that Ember had already ripped off the shirt he had been wearing—which had hardly been particularly modest to begin with—and changed back into his old clothes.

[Was that really necessary?!]

[Did anyone get a picture? Did anyone get a picture?!]

[Why is it so big?]

As Ember turned around, he saw Nick frantically wiping his face while Adrian stared at him with his mouth slightly open, looking rather dazed.

"What?" Ember raised an eyebrow and asked warily.

Adrian immediately raised both hands, flexing his fingers eagerly. "Can I touch it for a bit?"

Ember: "..."

Before Nick could even figure out what was going on, he saw Ember launch himself forward, delivering a kick straight at Adrian with a fierce whoosh through the air.

Adrian, meanwhile, was laughing gleefully as he hopped and skipped all over the place. Compared to a snake, he looked more like a rabbit.

"Alright, you two," Nick said from the side, dusting off his gaudy clown outfit. "We still have three coins left to collect!"

On the other side, Ember had successfully hoisted Adrian up as if he were a chicken. The fierce expression on his face gave Nick the distinct feeling that he was about to tear Adrian in half.

"Alright, alright, did you hear me, Ember? Stop messing around," Adrian said as he dangled helplessly, but Ember’s grip did not waver in the slightest.

In the end, Adrian could only look up at him and plead, "What did I even do to you...?"

Ember stared at Adrian, the corner of his eye twitching. Finally, he simply threw him onto the ground.

The three of them headed straight for the backstage exit. As soon as they left the circus area, the happiness levels displayed on their chests also began to drop. However, since each of them had previously maintained a full hundred points, this was hardly a problem for them.

The entire amusement park was eerily silent. Apart from the bizarre human-shaped candy statues melting like candles, the other teams seemed to still be inside the games, desperately trying to earn coins.

...

The deeper they ventured into the corridor leading to the second zone, the more abruptly the air temperature dropped. The sickly sweetness of cotton candy and the rotting stench of death from the Night Circus completely disappeared, replaced by an icy, dry current of air thick with the pungent smell of corroded mercury.

After passing through the dark corridor, an enormous and grotesquely distorted space appeared before their eyes, so dizzyingly vast that it almost made them lose their balance.

Mirror Maze.

At the entrance, Bunny seemed to have been waiting there for quite some time. Its two short front paws kept waving back and forth like the paws of a lucky cat.

"Welcome... please come in... please come in..."

This Bunny seemed somewhat different from the one they had encountered the first time. At the very least, the Bunny they had met earlier had never stuttered.

Adrian waved at Bunny before stopping right in front of the massive entrance to the maze.

However, there was nothing in front of them.

The light actually came from below.

They could not make out anything clearly. All they could see were countless sparkling reflections, like innumerable diamonds illuminated by a beautiful blue light.

Before they could even form an impression of the place, their bodies were suddenly shoved forward with tremendous force!

CRACK... CRACK...

At the same time, the arched stone gate behind them abruptly closed, transforming into a perfectly smooth wall of glass.

Their way back was completely sealed off!

Thousands upon thousands of towering mercury mirrors stood packed across an area spanning several square kilometers, forming an endless labyrinth with no discernible beginning or end. Their perfectly smooth, gleaming surfaces reflected countless overlapping and distorted images of the surrounding space.

An eerie emerald-green light emanated from the tops of the mirrors, spilling down onto the pitch-black tiled floor and casting warped shadows that writhed like living creatures crawling beneath their feet.

"Impressive."

Adrian landed perfectly, looking around with interest as he raised a hand and lightly touched the surface of the nearest mirror. But the moment his finger made contact with the ice-cold glass, his reflection inside the mirror suddenly curled its lips into a smile!

CLICK!

The reflection inside the mirror raised a hand and made a throat-slitting gesture toward the Adrian standing outside!

Adrian did not retreat even an inch.

Ember, meanwhile, had already become wary, staring at the shadow that continued to twist and writhe inside the mirror. "A reflection?"

"It’s not simply a reflection."

Standing at the center of the mirrored corridor, Adrian calmly observed the hundreds of images of himself appearing across the surrounding walls. Every reflection of Adrian in the mirrors wore a different expression. Some were smiling gently. Some were engulfed in blazing golden flames. And some had icy, blood-red eyes, resembling those of a merciless demon god.

"This place..." Adrian spoke softly, his elegant voice echoing through the silent space of mirrors. "...is where reality and the inner self collide. Be careful, you two."

Reality and the inner self collide?

The moment those words left Adrian’s lips, the air around them seemed to freeze into countless thin sheets of ice. The pungent smell of mercury was so intense that it seemed to shoot straight down their throats, weighing heavily on the minds of anyone who dared set foot in this space.

"Reality and the inner self?" Ember repeated softly, his amber eyes cautiously sweeping across the hundreds of mirrored walls reflecting his own image.

Unlike Adrian’s reflections, which displayed countless different states and emotions, Ember’s reflections in the mercury walls looked strangely small. More importantly, none of them appeared particularly ferocious.

As for Nick, he took half a step back, his eyes fixed intently on his own reflections.

They were nothing more than dark shadows that continuously swayed and twisted.

And where their hearts should have been, tiny flickers of flame burned.