Chapter 238: Not Again
Ethan’s eyes snapped open.
He inhaled sharply, and the first thing he saw was Elara kneeling over him, close enough that he could see the worry filling her crimson eyes.
Neither of them spoke.
While only a couple of minutes had passed, for her, it had felt like hours, and for Ethan, it had been months. Months of violence, hatred, and isolation, in which he had almost forgotten what genuine human kindness looked like.
Now, the first face he saw was hers.
And he definitely wasn’t complaining, a small smile slowly appearing on his face.
"You called out to me."
Elara nodded.
A faint smile tugged at her own lips, relief washing over her features. Without even realising, the two began leaning ever so slightly toward one another, as if drawn in by magnetism.
Then...
Screeeeech!
The grotesque sound of hundreds of caterpillars tore through the moment.
Both of them immediately turned.
The creatures were only moments away from reaching the unconscious group.
Ethan’s expression hardened.
’Business first.’
He looked upward to the Golden Flutterer that hovered above its army, its beautiful golden wings slowly beating. It wasn’t attacking, but it had definitely noticed they weren’t under its illusions and almost seemed confused.
The beast couldn’t comprehend what had happened.
One human possessed something ancient dwelling within her soul that had rejected its mental invasion entirely. The other was somehow connected to four separate souls, of beasts at that.
And when he was so close to being consumed by the illusions, the foreign souls had managed to break through. The entire time, they had been eating away at its spiritual prison, and with Elara’s help, shattered it entirely.
The Golden Flutterer had never encountered anything like it.
For the first time since the battle began, the intelligent beast hesitated.
*Is it fine for us to attack?* Elara signed, still finding it easier to communicate this way.
"It should be. From what I can see, it’s using the mana supply and its fluttering wings to maintain the illusions. If we stop that, it should break apart."
That made sense, but honestly, he wasn’t entirely sure either.
Elara had been right to hesitate, but now they had no choice but to face the beasts, and she was much more comfortable doing so with Ethan by her side.
She stepped forward, crimson energy gathering around her hands.
’Impressive.’
Ethan immediately noticed the difference in her mana flow, and with her increased efficiency, her power had also increased. He wasn’t sure how she had improved and how she had even got out of the illusion in the first place, but those questions could wait.
She intended to end it immediately, but before he could, Ethan raised one hand, stopping her.
"Let me get this one."
She looked at him questioningly.
Ethan’s blue eyes never left the butterfly.
"I owe that thing."
It had trapped him inside months of hell and forced him to relive everything he had tried so desperately to leave behind. The pain and rage still lingered, with Ethan almost reverting to his old self.
For that, he wanted to kill it himself.
Its physical abilities were pathetic compared to its mana, so doing so should be easy.
And an A-Rank Boss Beast meant one thing...
’A shit ton of Evolution Shards!’
A grin slowly spread across his face as he stepped forward.
’Partial Assimilation: Spark.’
Flames ignited around his body, which he instantly suppressed and directed around his feet and palms.
Boom!
He exploded into the sky like a missile, honed in on one target.
The Golden Flutterer watched him approach, then its wings fluttered once, unleashing another burst of light. It drew upon its infinite stream of mana, its presence surging as it released more mana than Ethan had, even while assimilated with Spark.
Its goal was clear: trap Ethan in another of its soul prisons.
’I broke out once, so I should be immune, right? And this time I’ll be mentally prepared so-’
The light struck Ethan mid-flight.
His body froze instantly.
The flames beneath his feet sputtered, and his eyes lost focus.
"...!"
For a single, terrifying moment, he hung motionless in the air.
Then gravity reclaimed him.
The flames disappeared completely as his body began falling toward the floating islands below. And the Golden Flutterer and Elara were also frozen in place, waiting to see whether he would awaken a second time.
-
The moment the Golden Flutterer’s second wave of golden light engulfed him, Ethan knew exactly what it was.
’Not again.’
His consciousness was dragged downward, as though invisible hands were pulling his soul into a bottomless abyss. The gate and butterfly beasts disappeared, cold concrete replacing the open skies instead.
Steel bars, grey walls, and the suffocating metallic scent of blood and rust.
"This is getting old."
He was back in his prison cell in Monster Manor, only this time he retained his memories and consciousness.
Ethan smiled, as unlike before, there was no confusion or panic.
He knew this wasn’t real.
But despite recalling everything, the illusion immediately began fighting back as the world around him distorted. Even if he knew it was an illusion, it didn’t make it any less realistic and painful.
The concrete walls rippled as a guard’s baton suddenly slammed against metal bars.
"Cell doors opening!"
The familiar announcement echoed throughout the prison.
"Move!"
The illusion was trying to drag him back into the routine, make him forget again, and convince him that this was reality.
Ethan simply shook his head.
"You almost had me the first time."
He clenched his fists.
"But I’m not that same man anymore."
He felt his mind blur, and his surroundings distorted further as the Golden Flutterer increased its mana output. Sensing his resistance, it wasn’t taking any chances and focused on entrapping his very soul.
Memories began to fade, faces disappeared, and names vanished.
As much as he was constantly reminding himself that none of it was real, he was slowly sinking back into the illusion.
Yet there were certain things the butterfly couldn’t erase.
A wolf’s howl echoed somewhere in the distance, and a sharp screech followed overhead. Warm flames danced across Ethan’s right fingertips, while electricity crackled in his other hand.
His tattoos slowly appeared across his body, the four beasts sharing his very soul.
Their existence wasn’t something an illusion could simply overwrite, and they grounded him, his memories quickly clearing themselves of the haze.
Ethan smiled.
"Y’all are the best."
The prison walls trembled, and the illusion wasn’t just fighting one soul anymore, but four. Every beast instinctively resisted the spiritual invasion, pulling Ethan back toward reality.
He also honed in on those that mattered to him, focusing on images of their faces.
Elara, Mark, Clarissa, Tasha, Lila, Maren, and Adonis were the main ones. But alongside them were even the likes of Kaela. He could almost hear her yelling at him and telling him to stop being a pussy, though she herself was caught in one of these nightmares.
’I’ve got a life now, and this shithole is behind me.’
The prison cracked, light pouring through the fractures as the illusion desperately tried to rebuild itself. Guards shouted, prisoners screamed, and blood stained the floor, but none of it mattered anymore.
"I survived you already."
He looked around the collapsing prison that had taken a chunk of his life.
"And I don’t intend on coming back."
BOOM!
The illusion shattered like glass, and in the process, he ended up receiving something unexpected...
Comments