Chapter 582: Carnival of Desire [14]

RACK!

A tiny crack appeared right at the point of contact. The thin layer of mercury coating the back of the mirror began to seep out like liquid, turning into silver droplets that pooled across the pitch-black tiled floor.

[HEY! THE THING IN THE MIRROR IS ABOUT TO CRAWL OUT!]

[I just came from Natalia’s livestream. All I can say is that these guys definitely picked the wrong place to go!]

[What? Natalia might fail too?]

[Not to that extent. After all, she’s an heir. Still, this time is indeed a little...]

[What the hell is that up ahead?!]

Just as the livestream comments suggested, deep within the third side passage of the Mirror Maze, a strange sound began to echo from the distance—the crisp clatter of footsteps, like glass striking against stone.

Crack... crack... clack... clack...

Lily and the four remaining members of the Themisia Guild struggled to press forward. Yet their condition had already deteriorated to a horrifying degree.

The area of Lily’s skin beneath her neck that had undergone "candyfication" had spread all the way up to her chin and across both cheeks, transforming half of her delicate face into a translucent layer of candy shell through which the frozen streaks of gray blood beneath were clearly visible.

Mark was in even worse shape. His entire left arm had stiffened into something resembling a gigantic candy cane, leaving him completely unable to grip a weapon.

"L-l-look... up ahead!" Mark stammered, trembling as he pointed toward the enormous mirrored wall blocking the intersection.

On the surface of the mirror, the reflections of the five of them remained completely motionless.

The "sugar shadows" inside the mirror slowly stretched their smooth mouths wide, revealing rows of razor-sharp teeth made of needles. They raised their hands and began pounding violently against the glass.

BANG!

The mirror shattered into thousands of fragments.

Black candy-sugar phantoms leaped out, emitting suffocating howls as they charged straight toward the Themisia Guild, whose combat strength had been severely diminished.

"Prepare for battle!" Lily growled.

Even her voice sounded somewhat strange now. She swung the icy short sword in her hand, sending a streak of white snow sweeping outward to block the attack. But her strength had already been cut in half by the effects of her Joy Index, which had plummeted to rock bottom.

Back with Adrian’s group.

"Looks like someone up ahead is helping us ’test the traps,’" Adrian said, slowly walking forward.

The ferocious figures inside the mirrors seemed completely incapable of affecting him in the slightest.

Ember walked alongside him, her arms folded across her chest, her amber eyes constantly wary of the mirrored walls on either side.

"They don’t seem to have any intention of attacking us." At least, not yet, Nick thought, his gaze just as cautious.

"Because we aren’t afraid right now." Adrian said it casually. "They’re just a few shadows. We’re the hosts here."

Nick found Adrian’s words somewhat strange.

Ember spoke from the side. "So, as long as we aren’t afraid, these shadows can’t do anything to us, right? After all, they’re just reflections inside the mirrors."

"You could put it that way." Adrian turned to look at his two teammates. "But the problem is, these shards of glass know how to mess with your mind."

SHATTER!

The moment Adrian finished speaking, the three-meter-tall mirrored wall directly in front of them suddenly cracked and exploded into countless razor-sharp shards of glass.

From within the dense cloud of swirling mercury mist, a massive creature emerged.

It stood over four meters tall, its entire body constructed from thousands of shattered mirror fragments pieced together.

What was truly terrifying was that every tiny shard covering its body reflected a human face—and not a single one of those faces was the same.

It wasn’t hard to guess that these were the unfortunate souls who had lost their lives here.

The Mirror Monster raised its enormous arm, formed entirely from razor-sharp glass blades, and violently swept it toward the three of them!

Whoosh... CRACK, CRACK!

The sound of shrieking wind rang out as the colossal arm swept toward them.

Ember immediately stepped forward, the flames in her hand roaring to life, hot enough to melt the entire mass of glass in the blink of an eye.

However, before she could do so, the monster’s entire body suddenly dissolved into smoke and dust, filling the air with the pungent stench of mercury.

The thick, heavy mist immediately swallowed their vision!

They could seemingly only feel their own bodies, unable to see anything else within the dense fog...

"Adrian! Ember!" Nick couldn’t help but call out. Yet he still didn’t move recklessly.

No one knew what might be waiting for them within the fog at that very moment...

Their vision was completely obscured by the dense, icy-cold mercury mist. The metallic stench was so intense that it seemed to rush straight down their throats. Every now and then, it was accompanied by the crisp sounds of crack... crack... as countless shards of broken glass collided somewhere around them.

Nick’s voice faded into the oppressive silence.

Nick stood perfectly still, both hands gripping his two short blades tightly as he remained on high alert. He didn’t dare move recklessly, knowing full well that a single wrong step could send him straight into a glass blade or lead him into a dead end within the Mirror Maze.

"Nick! Over here!"

From within the murky gray fog, a familiar tall figure hurriedly emerged. Red-orange flames erupted from his palm, dispelling some of the surrounding mist.

It was Ember.

He frowned, his voice carrying a hint of urgency. "This fog has some kind of spatial-distortion magic. Where’s Adrian?"

"I don’t know either. I just got separated from him." Nick let out a relieved breath and was about to move closer to Ember.

But the moment he took half a step forward, Nick’s eyes inadvertently swept over the space beneath Ember’s feet.

The pitch-black tiled floor reflected the red-orange flames with perfect clarity. Yet directly beneath Ember’s heels, there was absolutely no shadow.

In a space filled with mirrors and light like the Mirror Maze, no matter how bright the flames were, any physical object should inevitably cast a shadow.

Yet the Ember standing before him looked almost like a creature floating in midair. The soles of his boots seemed fused directly to the black tiles, leaving not even the slightest dark silhouette behind.

Moreover, the red flames in his hand...

They gave off absolutely no heat.

Nick froze.

An illusion?

He instinctively looked down at the shadow stretching across the floor beneath himself.

Ember raised an eyebrow slightly, a hint of suspicion appearing in his eyes. "Nick, what’s wrong?"

SLASH!

Before he could finish speaking, Nick’s gleaming short blade, carrying a bone-chilling killing intent, shot straight toward him!

...

In another passage of the maze, Ember frowned as he walked slowly through the mercury mist.

His amber eyes darted constantly from side to side. Every time his heel struck the tiled floor, it produced a heavy, steady sound.

"Cough, cough, cough!"

Just then, a familiar sound suddenly rang out.

Adrian’s coughing sounded as though his throat were about to tear itself apart.

Although Ember knew that Adrian wasn’t an ordinary person, his scrawny, sickly-looking frame always made people worry.

Ember frowned and quickly moved forward.

"Hey, you okay?"

Adrian covered his mouth as he coughed, his shoulders trembling slightly from the cold. His golden hair had fallen somewhat limp, and there were even a few tears of irritation at the corners of his eyes from coughing so hard.

He raised his eyes to look at Ember, then finally crouched down.

Ember immediately sensed that something was wrong.

He remembered that they were still breathing in mercury.

Although Artists were no longer ordinary humans, prolonged exposure could still kill them, let alone inside a dungeon.

Adrian was already like this...

Could it be that snakes were even more sensitive to mercury?

Ember didn’t know much about the subject. Acting almost entirely on instinct, he quickly stepped forward, hoisted Adrian onto his back, and hurried out of the fog-covered area.

"You’re usually such a loudmouth. Serves you right, Adrian."

Ember growled softly, quickening his pace with every step.