Chapter 200: Out of Control
That route was indeed different.
Not long after they started down it, the scenery changed.
An open space—like a mountain cave that had been hollowed out by force. The rock walls on every side were covered in mirrors. Those mirrors stretched from the floor all the way up to the ceiling, wrapping the entire chamber into one giant, bizarre crystal.
Light ricocheted back and forth inside it, weaving itself into countless dazzling ribbons that made it hard to keep one’s eyes open.
Ryan stood at the entrance, taking in the space before him.
It was huge, about half the size of a football field. The ground was perfectly level, and it too was covered in mirrors. When he stepped onto it, he could clearly see his own reflection.
In the distance, directly ahead, there was a gap in the mirrored walls.
That had to be the “exit” Lillian was talking about.
“That’s it!” Lillian leaned out from behind him and pointed in that direction, unable to suppress the excitement in her voice. “That’s the place! That’s exactly where we found it earlier!”
Rex tightened his grip on her hand and took a deep breath.
“Let’s go.”
The three of them stepped into that mirrored cavern.
Their footsteps on the mirrored floor were very light. Click. Click. Click. One after another, echoing through the broad chamber. The light leaped across them, painting mottled patches of color over their faces.
They walked toward the gap.
They had covered about half the distance when a figure suddenly emerged from that opening.
Light green hair, especially cool and clear beneath the dazzling light. Gray-green eyes, looking toward them.
Vera.
She stood there, and the moment she saw Ryan, she very obviously froze.
“Ryan?” she said, confused. “Why are you here—”
Before she could finish, a violent gust of wind roared up.
Rex had already charged.
He let go of Lillian’s hand, gripped that heavy sword in both hands, and lunged toward Vera like a beast driven mad. He was moving so fast that Lillian called out something behind him, but he did not hear a word of it.
There was only one thing left in his mind—
This woman had hurt the young miss.
This woman had nearly killed the young miss.
Vera twisted aside and avoided the first strike.
The heavy blade passed by her shoulder and smashed into the mirrored floor. With a crack, the mirror burst into countless fractures, and the shattered fragments sprayed into the air, glittering in the light.
“Rex!” Vera retreated several paces, her brows drawn tight. “What are you doing?”
“What am I doing?” Rex’s eyes were red. “You hurt the young miss, and you’re asking me what I’m doing?”
His second strike came immediately.
Vera dodged again. Her movements were light and airy, like a leaf lifted by the wind. Wind elements gathered around her, carrying her, supporting her, making every motion feel more like gliding than running.
“What are you talking about?” she said as she evaded another blow. “Didn’t Lillian go with Ryan?”
“Still pretending?” Rex gritted out, sweeping his sword sideways in a third attack. “The young miss already told us everything! You found the exit and wanted to keep it for yourself, so you attacked her—what kind of monster are you?”
Vera’s frown deepened.
She glanced toward Lillian in the distance.
That girl, covered in wounds, was leaning against Ryan, her face deathly pale. She looked pitiful enough to break anyone’s heart.
Then Vera looked at Ryan.
Ryan stood there without saying a word. He was only watching her.
There was something in those gray-blue eyes she could not read.
“I didn’t,” Vera said, slipping past another swing of Rex’s sword. “After I got separated from Lillian, I was looking for her the whole time. I—”
“Bullshit!”
Rex was not listening.
His sword grew faster and heavier with every strike. Earth elements gathered around him, lending every swing the crushing force of a mountain. The mirrors were blasted apart one after another under his blows, fragments spraying everywhere and tracing blinding streaks through the air.
Vera could only dodge.
Her wind affinity was strong enough to keep her out of reach, but she did not want to truly attack Rex. She could tell this man had genuinely gone mad. Rage had completely swallowed him.
But she could not keep dodging forever.
When another strike came at her, she twisted aside, then raised a hand—
A wall of wind rose between them.
Rex’s sword slammed into it with a heavy thud. The wall was soft, yet resilient, like an invisible layer of cotton that absorbed most of the force of his blow.
“Calm down!” Vera’s voice finally took on a sharp edge. “I’ll say it one more time—I did not hurt Lillian!”
“Then explain why she’s injured that badly!” Rex shouted. “The wounds on her face, the wounds on her body—they were all made by wind magic! If it wasn’t you, then who was it?”
Vera froze.
She looked toward Lillian in the distance.
That girl was staring at her, tears brimming in her eyes, looking pitiful beyond words.
But suddenly Vera noticed one detail.
The girl was standing beside Ryan, yet her gaze kept slipping toward a certain point—not the exit, but somewhere else.
There was no fear in that look. No anger.
Only something strange...
Expectation.
As if she were waiting for something.
Vera’s heart lurched.
Something was wrong.
She had just opened her mouth to speak when Rex charged at her again.
There was too much reflected in those mirrors.
Rex’s sword. Vera’s wind. Ryan’s silhouette. And countless copies of themselves, all doing different things in the same instant—some swinging swords, some bleeding, some collapsing, some still fighting. The light in the mirrored cavern was shredded into fragments.
Those once-dazzling ribbons of light had become a maze of twisted lines, as though the whole world had been hacked to pieces and then crudely stitched back together.
Vera thought that if this continued, someone was going to die.
But she was already past the point where she could simply stop it.
Rex’s eyes were red enough to bleed, and as he roared things like “You hurt the young miss” and “I’m going to kill you,” those words no longer sounded like human speech. They sounded more like the howl of a beast. Earth elements gathered around him in a dull yellow glow. Every swing of his sword carried the crushing force of a mountain, smashing great pits into the mirrored floor while shards flew in every direction, each one scattering sharp light.
In every mirror he shattered, another version of him appeared—
Mad.
Furious.
Bleeding.
Tireless.
Vera kept dodging.
Her wind affinity let her move like a drifting leaf, slipping past every devastating strike. But she did not want to counterattack. She did not want to truly injure this brute who had been driven senseless by fury. She had seen too many people consumed by rage. When rage took over, they could see nothing, hear nothing. Only one thought remained—
Kill the one who harmed the person I treasure.
“Rex!” she shouted while dodging. “Listen to me! I did not hurt Lillian!”
His answer was another sweeping strike.
Vera bent low and avoided it. The heavy sword passed just above her hair, and the force of the swing lashed across her cheek like a knife. She thought, if that strike had landed cleanly, her head probably would have burst open like a watermelon.
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