Outside the Crimson Gate.
Leaning against the parking vehicle in the vast desert, Master Ansell stared at the massive and towering gate with a nonchalant look, his eyes occasionally falling on the small watch in his hand.
"It has been already 30 minutes. They are definitely doing much better than anyone else, but then..." the chairman of the Realm Association mumbled before his brows furrowed tightly, "Why do I have this feeling of uneasiness?"
And just as his voice fell, suddenly a flash appeared before the Crimson Gate, attracting Master Ansell's attention right away.
"Arthur?"
Master Ansell felt something was amiss when he saw Arthur's figure kneeling on the ground and quickly ran beside him, placing a hand on the youngster's shoulder. Or at least tried to, however, just as his hand was ready to touch Arthur's shoulder, the tattooed guy suddenly gasped deeply for air while his hand jumped to his chest.
"Wh-What?!"
With a face as pale as if he had just seen a ghost Arthur breathed hastily and heavily, forcing Master Ansell to act quickly and calm him down.
"Arthur! Just take a deep breath and calm down. Everything is okay, you are fine."
"H-Huh?"
Upon hearing Master Ansell's voice Arthur seemed to calm down and shift his gaze to the side before his hands slowly began to get lowered and his breathing went back to normal.
"I... am alive? But ho-," Arthur wished to ask how he was still alive, however, the next second he realized the item Master Ansell gave him and the rest of the group.
"The Avatar Totem... So that's why..." Arthur mumbled quietly, his face gradually starting to gain its natural colors back.
Master Ansell, who watched Arthur from start to finish deepened his frown even more and quickly asked, "Hey, Arthur, care to explain to me what happened? Where are the rest? Are they in danger also?"
Seeing that only Arthur appeared from the Crimson Gate Master Ansell instantly understood what was happening. After all, if only one individual was leaving a Realm Gate, a Crimson Gate at that, and in one piece no less, it meant only one thing.
'He had been killed in there and was saved by the Avatar Totem in the very last second.'
If one was killed during a Realm Game with an Avatar Totem in possession, then that individual was able to escape the consequences of the given Realm Gate, however, with the cost of getting kicked out of the Realm Games. This meant if such a thing happened then that individual will not only fail to keep helping his or her comrades but also lose the chance to gain rewards if the Realm Game had been successfully completed!
Arthur, upon hearing Master Ansell's question shifted his gaze at the large Crimson Gate before him that towered above him like a skyscraper, and slowly began to narrate everything that happened inside.
"A camouflage-type enemy with a curse-type environment?"
Master Ansell frowned, slowly figuring out why he felt so uneasy in the past half an hour.
'So that's why. No wonder hundreds were killed in minutes. Such an enemy would give even the top Rankers heavy headaches, no question about it.'
After thinking for a while, Master Ansell looked at Arthur and with a soft frown asked;
"Though, there is something I don't seem to understand. If you successfully annihilated the creature as you have told me, how did you die? Could it b that..."
The frown on Master Ansell's face only deepened as a scary possibility appeared in his head.
'Assassination.'
It was common knowledge that except for Avatar Traits people could increase their Traits bit by bit if they killed other humans within Realm Games. Such a thing was not rare around the world as people in secret used such a method to either gain more strength or just simply put anyone that they wished to see dead out of the way.
However, there was something Master Ansell didn't really understand.
If someone among the 8 he asked to conquer the Crimson Gate was a traitor and truly wished to assassinate someone or perhaps every member of the group, why has he or she decided to assassinate now? After all, everyone has seen that he has given everyone an Avatar Totem, and knowing what that item could do it was foolish to attempt an assassination right now.
It just made zero sense.
Arthur somehow seemed to have understood what the chairman of the Realm Association was thinking about as his complexion was rather scary and dark at the moment, hence why h quickly shook his head.
"Sir, nothing like that has happened. In fact, we really have killed the creature, but..."
And when he reached that point in his speech Arthur's face turned a little pale once again and swallowed nervously.
"Several others appeared after that. Not only that but they were made out of the same material as the whole place and they began to..."
"Target our reflections on their own body and kill each other!"
"Huh?"
Master Ansell raised a brow and wished to ask Arthur to tell him more, however, just as he could have opened his mouth suddenly something flashed beside him and the figure of Dax appeared, with the same expression as Arthur had when he appeared.
And a second later another figure emerged from out of nowhere.
Then another.
And another...
In less than a few minutes everyone that entered the Crimson Gate was now kneeling on the ground, breathing heavily with a pale face and clenching either their heads, chest, or throat as if to make sure it was intact.
"Ethereal Musician... Ancient Summoner... White Paladin... What is happening here?"
Watching as all the Rankers with an S Character Rank were thrown out of the Realm Game, Master Ansell felt stupefied and became speechless.
Dax, Helena, Min Chen, Canwin, Arthur, Felix, and even Silver Death Luna was kneeling on the ground, their expression full of disbelief, dread, and shock!
"Wait, someone is missing." Master Ansell quickly noticed that there was only one individual who has yet to appear before his face turned serious.
-
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Inside the World of Reflections.
Standing in the middle of the colosseum with his cloak forming a small barrier around him so he was defended from all directions, Raven remained motionless with a grim expression.
'Curse this!'
After using his plan to kill that creature, literally obliterating it from existence with almost flawless cooperation, he thought they won the fight and completed the challenge of the Realm Game just like that.
However, he couldn't have been further away from the truth.
Right after Min Chen used her summon to turn all the debris into dust with its cadaverous lightning, which Felix succeeded in dodging the last time with his Artifact that seemingly allowed him to become one with the air itself for a limited time, hence rendering him invulnerable for a short period of time against all kinds of physical attacks, all hell broke loose.
Just as they lowered their guards, thinking that the fight was over, creatures made out of the same material as the whole colosseum emerged from the ground close to each of them and shattered themselves including their own reflections too!
Which, in this case, meant their death too!
Arthur, Dax, Helena, and Canwin, the ones with low Dexterity and Speed all failed to react and move in time, hence causing them to die right on the spot and turn into sparkles of crimson light, indicating that they have died.
As for Luna, and Felix, while they were able to dodge in time, as the creatures' whole skin was covered in that mirror-like material they couldn't make their reflection vanish, thus they were killed also.
The only one who was able to survive was him and it was only because he had his Celeste Blade's cloak that wrapped itself around himself the very moment the creature emerged from the ground, hiding and protecting both his reflections and body at the same time!
'At least it seems this reflection curse or whatever doesn't apply to objects nor affect them.' Raven thought as even after 5 minutes of waiting, except for the punches from outside te creatures the cloak stood firmly.
It turns out that breaking a reflection only affects living beings and not inanimate objects such as the cloak that only followed orders and only acted if his life was in immediate crisis.
'Though, still, I can't keep staying like this forever. Whenever those bastards land a strike on my Relic, my Mystique drops toward zero rapidly.
[Mystique: 431 -> 421]
[Mystique: 421 -> 411]
[Mystique: 411 -> 401]
...
Even with his Primordial Grade Rune Mark and his Title's passive and active blessing, that pushed his Mystique above 450 points, which originally would have been above 750 if it would have been not for him using his Luck Enhancement and the Twilight seed, he knew it was only a matter of time before he runs out of Mystique.
'I guess I will have no other choice, huh?' Raven sighed helplessly and took a deep breath.
"Let's do this then." his face turned serious and as he ordered his cloak to wrap itself around his body like armor instead of covering him like a blanket, he activated his Emperor's Will silently.
[Your 640 points of Constitution and your 391 points of Mystique had been swapped for 1 minute!]
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