“Huff. Huff. Huff. O’ Bringer of Dawn, protect me!”

  Sera was now running through the mirror maze completely lost on where to go, her breaths heavy. Having lost her lifeline, she was now constantly ramming into the mirrors. At this point, she couldn’t tell left from right, up from down. She didn’t know when, but at some point the floors had turned into mirrors as well, replacing the once smooth concrete flooring.

  The task had spiraled out of control as she wasn’t expecting such a powerful opponent.

  She had been told of the demon, but she hadn’t expected it to be a Lord!

  Sera needed to get out of this dreamworld and warn the others! This wasn’t something a mere Lieutenant like Teddy could handle!

  She suddenly stopped running, knowing that it was useless to run anyway. Taking a deep breath, she decided on finding an opening here.

  Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out an insignia with an engraving of the Sun placed at the center.

  She raised the insignia to her chest and began to chant. “Great Light of the universe, gaze upon your faithful follower and dispel the darkness that shrouds this world.”

  As the chant continued, the mirrors around her began to ripple as the figure of Velmior walked into each individual mirror. Now, she was surrounded by at least a dozen of his reflections, all wearing the same sadistic smile as they slowly approached her, pressing their hands on the glass.

  His voice began to echo throughout the mirror maze as if all the reflections spoke. “A follower of Sol I see. I haven’t seen one of you this far North in a long time, but it ends all the same.”

  One of the reflections walked out of mirrors as the glass rippled behind him. “Please come with me, and we can settle this with my dear contractor.”

  He reached for Sera’s arm in a relaxed manner, but stopped as he saw the insignia begin to light up. He lightly chuckled. “Oh dear.”

  “Let there be light!”

  Finishing the chant, she closed her eyes and aimed the insignia at Velmior, causing a blinding light to illuminate the room. She knew a spell at this level wouldn’t kill such a being, but she hoped it would at least wound the demon or give her an opening to escape this nightmare.

  Slowly, the light faded away. Opening her eyes, she saw the demon had shattered like glass. Seeing this, she tried to feel an opening in the dreamworld, but to no avail. And even worse, all the other reflections surrounding her still remained smiling at her, as if the scene before them was amusing.

  He muttered to himself. “Well Anthony, don’t say I didn’t try it peacefully.”

  Sera’s eyes widened as she saw all the reflections push their hands through the glass, all of them slowly materializing as they pushed through, their hands all reaching for her.

  ‘Holy shit!’

  She looked around, searching for an exit but they had already been filled with more of the demon’s reflections.

  There was no way out.

  Accepting her fate, she could only gather information on this demon for the future, as she knew the other Mindtaps would most likely search through her mind for this.

  From what she saw, she could already deduce the demon’s powers pertained to glass or maybe reflections. Additionally, he was obviously a powerful demon, and from his introduction, he said he was a Lord.

  Did they have to bring the Gatekeeper for this?

  She internally shook her head. Sera was sure they had other powerful individuals to deal with a Lord.

  As she was thinking, dozens of hands grabbed onto her, keeping her entire body immobile. Some reflections remained in the glass with only the hands coming out while others had their bodies completely exit the glass, pushing her into the wall behind her.

  One of the bodies remained in the glass as he spoke to her. “That gave me a bit of a scare, Madam. Out of the others, I’d say that spell of yours was stronger than usual. Could you have, perhaps, improved it since the last time?”

  He shrugged. “Oh well, that will be for another time. For now, let’s return to my dear contractor, shall we?”

  Sera, unable to move, was slowly dragged into the glass as if she was sinking into quicksand. Her eyes grew fearful as she kept repeating hymns in her head to calm herself down.

  Remembering something, she quickly began chanting quietly. “Lord of Light, please bring me out and shine your light into my darkness, and relieve me from the darkness.”

  Finishing this, her body went limp as they were dragged into the mirrors.

  Anthony, still sitting on the chair, stared listlessly at the ceiling, waiting for Velmior to come back. Now that he thought about it, Velmior really did like to drag things out. Was that his thing?

  Suddenly, three Velmior’s exited the glass, with two dragging Sera along by the arms. For some reason, she seemed to be limp as she showed no resistance to her confinement. Though, seeing multiple Velmior’s was an odd sight to say the least.

  The last one not dragging her spoke to Anthony in a respectful tone. “The individual has been brought back. Though, she did fight back, so I had to resort to some…forceful measures.”

  Looking down, the both could see her dazed expression. It was obvious she was not all there for some reason. Anthony looked at Velmior with a suspicious look. “You didn’t…”

  He shook his head. “I did nothing. I just grabbed her and brought her here. Though, I do have a suspicion on what’s going on.”

  Anthony motioned him to continue.

  Velmior crossed his hands over his chest. “From what I remember, members of the Solar Tribunal are sometimes capable of…what’s the word…temporarily lobotomizing themselves to ensure they don’t give out any information to enemies when captured. Though, this is the first time I've seen it in action.”

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  Saying this, he waved his hands in front of her face with no reaction coming from her.

  Anthony thought for a moment. “Uh, do you know anything about her?”

  He shook his head. “Absolutely nothing. Like you saw, she hasn't said a word to me since we met.”

  “This…is a problem, isn’t it…?”

  “Not necessarily. If you’ll allow me, I can try and get the information that you desire.”

  Anthony smiled. “Well why didn’t you say so before? Go ahead!”

  With the confirmation he needed, Velmior grabbed her head. Suddenly, his eyes rolled back as his head shook. It was a disturbing sight for Anthony as the two Velmior’s holding her body shattered into shards of transparent glass.

  After what felt like hours, Velmior returned, his green pupils returning. “I think she’ll answer questions now, if you’ll try it out.”

  Looking at her now, her mouth was now open as her dull eyes looked past him. With a look of disgust, Anthony hesitantly approached her as he knelt down, trying to meet her eyes. “What is your name?”

  She replied in a monotonous tone, almost like a robot. “My name is Sera.”

  ‘Just Sera?’

  Velmior glanced at Anthony. “Nowadays, I believe only those with proper standing in this city can have a last name, no matter their origins.”

  Anthony nodded in understanding. At least Velmior could answer most questions he had.

  “State your organization. What is the Solar Tribunal?”

  Sera began to hesitate for a moment before answering. “The Solar Tribunal is a religious organization worshipping Sol. We reside in Hellsgrog’s area known as Central, under the watchful protection of Him.”

  ‘Sol? Central? What?’

  Anthony decided to worry about those terms later. “What was your task for coming into my mind?”

  “I was tasked with entering your mind in order to find information that confirms your status as a demon contractor. And if the suspicion was true, I was to search further to see whether you had intentions in harming Hellsgrog in any way. If you did, then I’d be forced to neutralize you.”

  Anthony made a weird face of confusion. “How would you have neutralized me?”

  She blankly replied. “I would either extract from the dreamworld and have the guards execute you or I would have shattered your mind, lobotomizing you.”

  ‘Holy. Lobotomization?! So they really did have malicious intentions.’

  Knowing he had know love for Hellsgrog at the moment, it was pretty much guaranteed that he’d have been executed here. But how did they know he was a contractor?

  “Who informed you of this information? Who ordered for you to come here?”

  This time, Sera struggled to hold back, her teeth clenching as she did her best to resist.

  “Wow, she really is a strong one. Let me adjust things for a moment.”

  Velmior, once again, grabbed her head. After a moment, Sera started to relax as Velmior pulled his hand away.

  “Alright, ask again.”

  Anthony cleared his throat. “Again, who was the one that ordered you to come here? And who gave you these accusations?”

  This time, Sera didn’t resist, and the answer came smoothly. “I was requested to come by Lieutenant Eicholtz. I believe he was the one that had the information. But I remember he mentioned another trial participant coming to him with the same information as he did, making him rush me over quicker.”

  Anthony focused on the last part. “Who was this participant?”

  Sera thought for a moment. It seemed their name wasn’t really remembered well.

  Finally she spoke in the same monotonous tone. “I believe his name was…Leo?”

  ‘Alright, so he had to deal with Leo and Lieutenant Eich-’

  “Wait, what? Repeat what you just said. What was their name?”

  “I remember that it was Leo, or something of that nature. I just know it was the boy that accompanied us to your dormitory.”

  “Oh my.”

  Velmior exaggeratingly covered his mouth with his hands. But behind that facade, he could barely jump in joy.

  He could feel it, it was finally happening.

  Anthony would finally sign the contract!

  All this time, he had waited, hoping for this very situation. He had told Anthony to perform acts similar to rituals, pretending they were just to help with calming him down. And in the fight with that giant man, while unconscious, he had temporarily taken control of Anthony’s body, slightly healing him in front of the Lieutenant, in hopes of him acting on suspicion. Not only that, the changes on his body solidified his story, marking him as a contractor for the others.

  Finally!

  Glancing over to Anthony, he could see the world shaking as the dreamworld began to crack, the area around them changing to a barren desert as the sand beneath rumbled. He could see Anthony’s body trembling, steam coming out from him.

  Moving forward, Velmior peeked at Anthony’s face. What he saw made him start preparing the contract immediately.

  Anthony’s face was absolutely furious, the veins in his head popping out. The dreamworld constantly changing as if to reflect his shattered mind.

  His breath became heavy and faster, his chest heaving, threatening to break out from his body.

  He could hear his ears ringing.

  The blood rushing to his head.

  He felt his body boiling.

  The world around him shattered, the dreamworld continuously changed scenery, eventually merging the scenes until it began to blend together, like a blend of multiple paintings bashed together, making the area look and feel unnatural, a canvas of beautiful, impossible wreckage.

  He had been betrayed. Not by some random person he had met, but an almost lifelong friend he had put his faith in.

  That he had trusted.

  Suddenly, he stopped trembling, his breathing calming down as his chest stopped moving.

  In an unusually calm voice, he called to the demon. “Velmior.”

  “Mhm?”

  At this point, Velmior, keeping a calm demeanor, was practically salivating on the inside, praying for him to say the words. His cheeks split, widening the slits of his mouth up to his ear in a sinister grin.

  ‘Say it. Say it.’

  Staring into the far distance of the shattered dreamworld, Anthony said words that would mark the beginning of a new age.

  “Give me the contract.”