บท 54: Hellish chase
'So why, why won't he jump?'
***
'I am going to die.
I am going to die by being chased by a gazillion bloodthirsty women.
One could argue that it's not the worst way to go out but…
Damn, this sucks!'
The ground trembled from the stampede of hundreds of hollow puppets in this illusory world.
"Uugh, huff, puff, damn it."
Time had lost its meaning. The whole thing was much more draining than getting scorched alive.
SWOOSH
Another poked out of the left wall and flailed its hands around.
It would have caught Aster off guard if it happened the first time yet unfortunately, it has already been repeated dozens of times before.
Without thinking, he ducked and slid just under its reach and continued running after getting up.
"Imbecile, better step up your game if you want to catch me off guard again, haha."
Meanwhile, Mei the maid was seething in anger.
Due to the astral fusion, she could somewhat feel and read what he was thinking and it infuriated her.
This connection was only one-sided which means only she could sense his thoughts and not the other way around.
'Damn you, let's see how you will laugh at me after I triple the amount of your 'admirers'.'
"Hohohoho!"
The twins looked at her strangely following her sudden outburst of laughter.
"Hey, don't you think Mei's laughter is cute?" The white-haired twin says as she receives a cup of tea from her butler.
"Yeah, but she is lacking on the creativity side a lot. Him getting chased by beautiful girls got old." The other twin complained after taking a sip of her drink.
Mei overheard their talk.
"Who are you saying uncreative, you ungrateful punks!?" She burst out.
Silence descended upon the room. The atmosphere became heavy and noticeable bloodlust lingered in the air.
Mei realized her blunder a little too late.
'I'm fucked.'
The holographic screen that had been monitoring Aster for the past 30 minutes turned off, reflecting the nervousness of Mei who accidentally canceled it.
'Keep your shit together, Mei! They would surely kill you if you accidentally released the prisoner as well!'
The butler who was serving the twins their snacks shot a venomous glare at her. Unlike her, he wore no mask.
A pair of horns decorated his head and his bright orange irises glowed menacingly within black scleras.
Besides all that, he looked like a normal middle-aged man.
"That is Miss Noir and Blance for you, you undisciplined brat."
"Hehehehe."
"HAHAHAHA"
The joyful laughter of their young misses lightened up the mood and the butler's bloodlust ceased to exist.
"Hehe, I like you Mei, never change alright?" The black-haired one, otherwise known as Noir commented on her rude behavior.
"Yes, never change!" The other, Blance, supported her twin.
"Young misses, you spoil this filthy half-elf too much. I suggest properly disciplining her and I would advise-"
Blance; "No need butler, Her explosive personality is one of the reasons we chose her as our maid, right sis?"
Noir; "Right, we did that so no need to be so reserved, Mei!"
Mei clasped her chest with her left hand and pretended to be moved before bowing to her employers.
'Thank Gaia! That was a close call.'
Blance: "But our criticism about you being uncreative still stands you know?"
'You little-'
Noir: "But that's fine. Bring the screen back. How tired are you? Can you keep going?"
"Er, umm. Yes, I would say I'm around at about 60% I think?"
Blance: "That is plenty. Let's do it together."
***
"*Pant*, *pant*, ughh"
He felt so tired that he felt sick.
If he was running for this long with max speed in the physical world then his body would have given up already.
On the plus side, he noticed there were fewer ambushes now.
In fact, there were none.
Nevertheless, instead of making him feel relieved, it massively boosted Aster's anxiety. It made him think the illusion master was up to no good.
And his intuition proved correct.
He saw the corridor split into a crossroad with dread.
'Shit, they can manipulate the terrain?
Is this supposed to be a trap? I will die if I pick the wrong one?
Goddamnit.'
With the speed he was going at, there was no time to think.
He served right and kept running.
SWOOSH
Arrows flew out of nowhere and threatened to make a couple of holes in his body.
He ducked and narrowly avoided it and was greeted with spikes coming out of the ground.
STAB
"Ugh"
There was no room for a break, creepy dolls that exploded fell from the ceiling, green flames were spewed out from hidden pipes and gravity changed every now and then.
If the previous chase was a nightmare then this was hell.
Pain assaulted Aster's very being like heavy artillery.
Past a certain point, the princesses morphed into monsters with outer appearances that would haunt someone for life.
More and more crossroads appeared and each and every one of them left him thinking if the other paths were more forgiving.
Acid dripped down from the ceiling and burned him.
Poisonous gas scorched his lungs.
Each second stretched into hours.
'Damnit all, I can't lose consciousness here. Who knows what will happen to me then.'
He tried to retaliate.
Attacks remain illusions until they are about to hit him. They gain 'physical bodies' right before they do and that's when he defended himself.
Whether be it using magic to deflect it or just punching it head-on.
This trick of his lasted a while until it didn't anymore.
It was like a game developer noticing a bug and then patching it.
'Fuck, this piece of shit is learning!'
He was right. Mei was improving in her illusion ability.
Aster did his best.
A javelin was thrown towards him from behind which he stepped aside to dodge.
But the illusion master decided to be tricky and shifted the ground a little bit.
This caused him to trip and fall down.
Not even a second later, the monster horde caught up and tore him to shreds.
In the real world, his body twitched and shook violently before going limp.
The holographic screen went black.
Aster had died in the illusion.
His mind was broken.
…
Or it was supposed to.
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