Chapter 586: Carnival of Desire [18]

Adrian’s soft, almost airy voice, accompanied by a long, lazy yawn, struck like a crushing blow, shattering the last shred of courage remaining among the players in the vast domed hall. An oppressive atmosphere descended over the place. Not a single person dared to voice an objection or hesitate for even the briefest moment.

"I remember! I remember the western route very clearly! I’ll draw it out right now!" One of them immediately crawled forward, both hands trembling so badly that he nearly dropped the roll of parchment. He hurriedly used a broken piece of charcoal to redraw the entire layout, including every passage, hidden turn, and trap their party had encountered.

"I... I’ll go find your companions! Right now! We’ll leave immediately!" Several other groups of players hurriedly bowed their heads. Without needing anyone to tell them what to do, they spun around and rushed straight toward the gray stone doors as if this place itself were the most terrifying dungeon in existence.

Adrian raised a hand. Before those people could even leave, he had already placed a mark on each of them.

"This will temporarily protect you. Of course, if any of you dare to run away, you’ll know exactly what awaits you."

The players shuddered, not daring to slow their steps.

The players who had just escaped from the stone quickly split into two distinct groups.

One group chose to remain in the domed hall, eagerly presenting their hand-drawn maps and meticulously describing every detail and every shifting mechanism hidden within the labyrinthine passages to Adrian.

The other group, made up of players with greater mobility, immediately scattered in countless directions through the pitch-black labyrinth, searching for any trace of Nick and Ember.

The vicious mercury mist outside was not only constantly ravaging and eroding their Joy Index, severely impairing the players’ vision and mental state, but the towering mirrors lining both sides of the walls were also continuously shifting the space around them at will, creating countless deadly illusions.

Fortunately, they all knew that Adrian was protecting them. Because of that, their minds were not shaken nearly as badly as they otherwise would have been.

SWISH!

A razor-sharp streak of silver light tore through the thick mercury mist, striking straight between the forehead of the impostor creature charging out from a blind corner.

CRASH!

The shard of glass exploded into countless glittering specks of gray dust before dissolving into the air.

Nick stood amid the ruins of the mirror maze, his shoulders trembling with every ragged, heavy breath—hurried, strained, and utterly chaotic. His costume was now torn and tattered beyond recognition, while his pale face was streaked with sweat and splattered with grimy gray blood from the frenzied slaughter he had just endured.

Countless blood-red veins marred Nick’s eyes. His right hand gripped the hilt of his short blade so tightly that his knuckles had turned white, his chest heaving continuously like a feral beast cornered with nowhere left to run, ready to tear apart anything that dared stand in his way.

He had lost count of how many impostors he had killed since he was separated from Adrian and lost his way in the mist.

At first, there had been a creature wearing Ember’s appearance. Then came countless other grotesque phantoms, distorted from the reflections of his own image...

But the most outrageous part was that they could even transform into Silvanus!

"Too bad I know Silvanus wouldn’t come looking for me anytime soon..." Nick wiped the blood from his face and continued forward.

Tap... tap... tap...

The hurried sound of footsteps echoed from farther down the mirror-lined corridor.

Three players struggled their way through the swarm of mirror monsters. The moment they spotted Nick’s gaunt figure standing amid the mist, they immediately cried out in relief.

"Hey! You’re Nick, right?! The lord in the domed hall told us to—"

SWISH!

Before the other player could finish speaking, a vicious blade strike, carrying a murderous aura, ripped through the air and grazed dangerously close to the lead player’s neck!

A flash of light erupted. Without the protective mark Adrian had left on him, the player would undoubtedly have died on the spot.

"Get lost!" Nick snarled through gritted teeth, his voice hoarse and ruthless, like the growl of a wild beast rumbling from the depths of its throat.

If not for the fact that his face remained unchanged, the three players might never have recognized him as the quiet young man who always followed silently behind Adrian.

Nick’s bloodshot, crimson-veined eyes remained fixed intensely on the three people before him. The two short blades in his hands were held in an extremely dangerous stance, ready to lunge forward and take their lives in the blink of an eye. To Nick in his current state, anyone calling out his name from within the gray mist was nothing more than a despicable mirror creature attempting to toy with his mind and emotions.

"Wait! Don’t attack! We’re real people! We’re actual Artists! We’re just like you!" The leader was so terrified that he collapsed onto the tiled floor, frantically raising both hands above his head as he shouted, "We came from the museum’s domed hall! The young man with golden hair and sapphire-blue eyes there sent us to find you!"

The frenzied killing intent in Nick’s eyes briefly faltered.

"...Adrian?"

"Yes! That’s him! He just defeated the Museum Boss and then ordered us to split up and search for you and Ember!" The player hurriedly explained between ragged breaths, terrified that if he delayed even for a second, that blade would come crashing down on his head.

At the same time, deep within the labyrinth, in a completely different passage...

Ember slowly walked through the blazing orange-red flames raging across the pitch-black tiled floor. His entire body was shrouded in a layer of violent, searing black smoke. The thick fabric covering his shoulders had been torn to shreds, exposing his sturdy skin covered in streaks of dried blood and countless tiny cuts inflicted by thousands of shards of shattered glass while he had burned the enormous mirror monster earlier.

Fresh red blood still seeped from Ember’s large, calloused hands. He casually used the back of one hand to wipe away the scorching mercury clinging to his chin.

When the second group of players finally reached Ember’s location, they did not even dare approach within ten feet of him.

The sky-high flames of Erebus, combined with the oppressive aura radiating from Ember as their powers collided, distorted the surrounding air beneath the sheer intensity of the heat.

"Ember... Ember..." The leader trembled as he spoke, unable to hide his terror at the sight of the blood-soaked man before him. "Lord Adrian... he’s waiting for you at the center of the Stone Museum..."

At the same time, some of them had already begun wondering how they could become believers blessed by Erebus.

They had heard that Ember had been personally chosen by Adrian. If they were chosen by the Priest as well, would they also be granted powers this formidable?

Meanwhile, Ember withdrew the orange-red flames from his hands. His probing gaze swept over the people standing before him, as though carefully assessing whether they were truly who they claimed to be.