Bab 198: A rematch? (I)

"I accept my fate."

Her voice sounded shaky and uncertain. A moment later, the pressure inside her skull lifted. She could see clearly again, although the darkness seemed to be a little less dense. As her vision cleared, she noticed several dark figures standing near her. They looked human, but they moved strangely—almost as though they weren't completely alive. Their arms and legs hung limply, and their heads drooped low.

They were floating statues, which symbolized the corrupted soul transformation that had activated the curse on her and Lily's lives inside the virtual world.

One of them carried an orb filled with glowing light. Another floated just behind him, its arm outstretched toward the orb. It wore a crown made of golden coins. Its face was twisted in anguish.

The last statue floated nearby, staring blankly ahead. Its gaze was focused somewhere far beyond the walls of the cave, and it appeared to be blind.