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1051. Memories of The Lake

Their hell was only just beginning.

They hit a string of dead ends after diverging from the chamber, leading them to constantly backtrack through the maze. Incidentally, they were not opposed by the Alabaster Mistress whenever they were heading towards a dead end.

However, the moment they backtracked towards the chamber, a Mistress would manifest to stifle their progress. This led them to believe that the Mistress only manifested when they were taking the correct path. Furthermore...

1050. Near Miss

There was a common idiom used on Earth that associated a concept with a mistress. For instance, Frost remembered the idiom ‘Nature is a cruel mistress’ being used whenever a natural disaster struck.

She never heard of misery being associated with this idiom before. The idiom itself was not especially common in Elysia either. The only one she could remember from the top of her head, aside from the mantras of the Ateliers, was the Paradise Lost adage.

Frost was briefly locked in...

1049. Immortal Death and The Alabaster Mistress named Misery

Cer was not the only sibling close to Raoul.

Res had a personal history with him too.

It wasn’t as convoluted as Cer and Raoul’s relationship.

If anything, it was simple.

On rainy days when Res had nothing to do but remain by her mother’s side… Watching the silhouettes of children stomp in the mud behind a paper screen, Raoul would arrive at her room wearing the perfume of flowers.

Rainy days weren’t the only times Raoul visited. The home Res shared wit...

1048. I Failed Many

Perils awaited every corridor. Acedia began to second guess whether it was worth possessing Frost’s body when she was constantly being put in front lines. She had honestly believed being Frost would mean boundless pleasures and, most importantly, fulfilment.

But it couldn’t be further from the truth.

Five hours had already passed. Over a hundred trapped corridors were cleared, and the Judge’s Prides had mapped enough dead ends to give them a rough idea on the layout of the m...

MA: 109. Bloody Nostalgia And A Warning

Red’s presence was made known in the form of brilliant flashes of red light.

Her blade glided through trees and vegetation. The leaves of shrubs and the petals of giant eighteen-leaved clovers tumbled seconds after her blade sliced past, as though the world needed time to process it had been cut.

Trees slid out of place, screeching as they tumbled along the forest floor. The red-adorned figure bounced from the trunk of trees that were still falling and then beheaded a pair of fl...

MA: 108. Breadcrumbs of A Local Legend

Hack

Slash

A cleaver descended upon the bones of an ox carcass. It was to be shared equally among another thirty-eight people who had arrived at the gathering site of the quest. Amongst these people there were fifteen Adventurers (including Snow and Red), thirteen hunters, and ten gatherers.

They were naturally split into three major groups because of roles. No one had uttered a single word to another, and yet, they knew precisely how they would function in...

1047. A Maze of Traps

The frosted walls of the maze felt exactly as how they appeared. They were cold, as though made from a single block of ice. So blue were the walls that Frost could not help but compare them to icebergs she had seen in artic documentaries.

She was half correct to assume these were ice. She only assumed that they weren’t was because of the walls of Act X’s headquarters they had seen earlier, which were made of strings. The walls were also made of this material, but it used the strands...

1046. Stats Unavailable

Looming before them were the foundations of an enormous wall comprised of transparent ice-blue trees.

They grew like giant icicles sticking out of the earth.

The wall stretched as far as the eye could see, and in the center was a grant entrance blocked by a door over a hundred meters tall. Intricate inscriptions resembling a network of spiderwebs decorated the door as crystal chandeliers the size of buildings hovered in the air, hundreds of meters behind the walls.

Only Fros...

1045. Blind, Once Again

“A close brush with death~” Acedia loomed over her, her eyes suddenly dazzling like stars. “Did you see the light at the end of the tunnel? Or hear a voice? Humans have tales about experiencing the world beyond death when they brush with death. I’ve yet to find a human like the eighty ninth meal, who told me she dreamed of having legs again in a garden she thought was the Nexus~ She was so sweet.”

“If only that was true.” Raoul sighed. “You can let go of me now.”

1044. Hold Your Breath!

It didn’t take long to find the correct Gateway to Nowhere. Trial and error led them to the furthest puddle, much to their disappointment. Logic would have had them second guessing themselves, and Frost would have considered reverse psychology, which was why she had first checked the ones closest to where they arrived.

But no, it was simply the one located the furthest away from them. This combined with Frost being the only one who was testing the Gateways to Nowhere meant they had al...

1043. Mother Says, Daughter Does

Puddles of ankle-deep water quickly replaced the vegetation. Giant reeds and cattails grew around the edges of these puddles. They gently swayed in the wind, attracting small creatures such as one-eyed frogs, and eight legged bunnies with unicorn horn called the Horned Bunny.

This should not have been possible, as there was no wind. The hypnotic dance caused these critters to fall under a false sense of security as they approached the puddle. As soon as more than five gathered at the ed...

1042. Confession

Anid Nests.

Over a thousand Anid Nests existed in Elysia. The majority naturally infested the forests of the Anid Region, which was known for the Anointed and the Celestial variants of the Anids.

The Anointed Anids were those who possessed more than 10 limbs, and the Celestial Anids were those with over a thousand. Nests outside of the Anid Region rarely possessed a Centianid (One Hundred Legged), let alone a Millinid (One Thousand Legged).

The latter were only found in 88 A...

Character Q&A 4 (Nearly 14,000 words!)

1041. The Overjoyed Angel

Joy was correct to assume that the Drones would keep moving in a single direction, but what she hadn’t noticed was the white mist that rose from the calcified remains of the Drone she killed.

“Pheromones.” Orth mentioned, softly placing a fist into her hand like a gavel.

There was no semblance of urgency in her voice, let alone her actions. Her sky-blue eyes remained hollow. Joy could not even find her own reflection in those eyes.

“It was calling for backup. Amazing...