“Voice… voice… I can’t hear it… it’s gone… Sister! Where are you? Save me… save me…! Mother… Father…!”
The fairy maiden’s hoarse screams and cries were clearly transmitted through the crystal screen to the ears of Yan Wei Fu, who was watching the illusion fragments together with Nine Night Moon.
Inside the crystal screen it was pitch black, and nothing could be seen.
But from these sounds, it could be inferred that the girl’s spirit was already on the verge of collapse.
“Even at this point, she only cries for her family instead of submitting to me… She’s a stubborn child, isn’t she?”
“…”
“Why are you silent? Do you think my educational methods are too harsh?”
Seeing Yan Wei Fu remain silent, Nine Night Moon continued to ask.
“How could that be? Among the ‘educational methods’ I’ve witnessed, your methods are considered relatively merciful.”
Yan Wei Fu bowed. Personally, he was not fond of continuing this kind of topic.
“But that said, this situation has happened a second time—the illusions you set up did not destroy their spirits, but instead made them more determined. Moreover, these scenes seem… as if their words truly reached the people who appeared in those memory fragments and had an impact on them.”
This time it was Nine Night Moon’s turn to be silent.
“This seems to run counter to your original goal of breaking them… but you have watched all this happen without making any adjustments. Could this also be part of your plan?”
“Of course not.”
Yan Wei Fu saw that in the center of the room, Nine Night Moon, who had just been showing displeasure and anxiety because things were slipping out of her control, now had a wide grin curling up the corners of her mouth—
“Just now I finally understood—my curse cannot affect these illusions. The scenes these children see are all the trials that Isis’s barrier was originally going to give them.”
“But didn’t you use the curse to trap the Hero and the others in the illusion before?”
Yan Wei Fu turned to look at the crystal screen showing the Hero. In the Blood Pool filled with Blood Mist and corpses, the Crimson Lotus Flame was still blazing.
Shifting attention from the Hero’s illusion to Naifeiliya’s illusion was only a matter of tens of minutes ago for him and Nine Night Moon in reality… but considering that time in the illusion flows hundreds or thousands of times slower than reality, that Hero must have been fighting without rest for a month or even longer—
‘What is she doing…?’
Even Yan Wei Fu, who usually had a calm expression, was left speechless by what he saw.
In the crystal screen, the Hero was sitting cross-legged in the center of a high wall of flames.
Beyond the flames, the surging Curse Tide… the corpses bearing the faces of her loved ones were groaning and continuously assaulting the wall of fire.
The Elven Queen was resting her head on the Hero’s lap—her face had become haggard from this seemingly endless nightmare, and she closed her eyes in a light sleep.
But the Hero was just yawning as if she hadn’t slept well, while occasionally swinging her sword to burn the corpses that managed to break through the fire wall into complete nothingness.
Even though people in that illusion did not need food or sleep… facing such a scene continuously would inevitably lead to mental exhaustion and depletion.
Even a High Elf’s spirit could hardly endure it; how could a mere human manage it?
“The reason my curse could take effect is because the barrier’s trial for those two has ended. The curse cannot dominate the entire barrier as I initially imagined… what it actually does is simply help me keep them trapped inside after they have already completed the trial.”
“Forgive my ignorance… I cannot understand your meaning.”
“Then I’ll explain it more simply.”
Nine Night Moon smiled as she moved two crystal screens in front of him—one showed Nephtalia trapped in darkness, and the other showed the Hero and the Queen in the Blood Pool.
“I am not that gentle with these disobedient children. The two scenes you see now are what I intended to show them from the beginning.”
“Then the fragments we saw earlier were…?”
“They were illusions created by the barrier itself. Even if I had not infused my curse into the barrier, these illusions would still have appeared before these children. And whether they can walk out of the illusions with their own will… that is the so-called trial of the Mist Barrier.”
“My curse cannot show its illusions to these children before the barrier’s own illusions, but it can use the barrier’s power to pull them into new illusions after they have left the old ones.”
“So, your curse merely seized a part of the barrier’s function, trapping those who had already completed the trial in new illusions?”
“You can understand it that way.”
“But that creates a new problem…”
“I know what you want to say. If everyone who enters the barrier passes its trial, then the barrier will dissipate on its own. At that time, my curse will likely disappear as well, and I will no longer be able to trap these people inside.”
“Then isn’t this a big trouble?”
“I never expected to use this curse to trap them inside forever. My goal was only to destroy their will… but the degree of obstinacy of these children seems to have exceeded my imagination.”
“…You call the act of carrying out one’s will ‘obstinacy’?”
Looking at the Hero who fought tirelessly, and the girl trapped in the Boundless Black Prison weeping but never yielding or begging for mercy, Yan Wei Fu slightly furrowed his brow.
“No, carrying out one’s will is commendable. But going against Heaven’s Mandate is foolish and pitiful, isn’t it?”
“Ah… so that’s how it is.”
From that hypocritical yet sincere smile, Yan Wei Fu understood her true meaning—
“My will is Heaven’s Mandate. Compared to my life, the power I am about to obtain, and my existence that I will prove to be eternal, the will of these children is like dust… insignificant.”
“Even the Hero?”
“As a member of the organization, you should understand. The power we seek far exceeds that of the Demon King and the Hero. Moreover, this barrier has made me realize one thing… the relic that Isis hid within her body is far more than just the blessing of ‘Evergreen’ on this land.”
“…”
“Haven’t you realized?” Even though Yan Wei Fu did not voice any opinion, Nine Night Moon continued nonstop. “Those scenes… are not mere memories.”
Yan Wei Fu knew what she wanted to say. “You said before that Queen Isis does not have such power.
There is no power in this world that can affect time—neither spells nor supernatural abilities can do such a thing—”
“But what about a ‘relic’? Those creations older than the history of the Demon Realm and the Human Realm, older than the existence of the First Demon King and the Hero.”
Yan Wei Fu’s figure swayed slightly.
“No one knows what kind of power these things possess… Isis doesn’t know, and the other ‘Moons’ don’t know either.”
“But now I know. And you, as a subordinate of the Crescent Moon… perhaps you should not know the same things I do?”
With Nine Night Moon’s declaration, a vine with spikes instantly pierced through Yan Wei Fu’s chest.
“This is the only adjustment that needs to be made.”