Chapter 259: Trapped

"Sigh... I came all the way here again, but why isn’t the inheritance opening? Guess I will have to wait a little longer."

Then Vritra turned around and actually began to fly back home, only to pause after a few moments as he realized that he had just gotten influenced.

"...by- Hubb- HUBBY!! Can you hear me?" Vritra finally heard Yasmine’s voice, which he was unconsciously ignoring all of a sudden.

This mythic halo was truly terrifying. It was quickly adjusting and making everything more realistic.

Previously, it had gotten some information from Diana, whose mental defense wasn’t as strong as Vritra’s, but Diana didn’t know about Yasmine.

And Misty Essence is weaker than Nihil-Anima, so it wasn’t able to know about the invisible flame—nor the fact that Vritra possessed it.

But sensing something, the Misty Essence cut off any sort of Vritra’s mental connection, and so he wasn’t able to hear Yasmine’s voice.

’Yeah, I can. It took control of my mind within moments without me even noticing it.’ Vritra thought. He wasn’t afraid, especially with Serene Mind that was working in the background and kept him sane.

It was Serene Mind just now that hastened the process of breaking the illusion.

"How do I keep myself unaffected by the illusion? And what am I actually searching for?" Vritra mumbled. The more he stayed in that familiar yet strange place, the more confused he felt.

"Calm down, first of all. Why don’t we try finding the source of the mythic halo? It should be present somewhere around here. The illusion will end once you get a hold of it." Yasmine said, her presence—as always—bringing calmness to Vritra.

"Hoo... Let’s try repeating your name. Maybe it will help and I can stay out of this bullshit illusion." Vritra said, then he began to repeat her name again and again while flying in random directions.

"Yasmine, Yasmine, Yasmine..." He was flying around rapidly, and repeating her name seemed to be helpful. It was like the Misty Essence could easily bypass all sorts of mental barriers and affect directly.

"Yasmine, Yasmine, Yasmine... Serpentine, Clementine, Evergreen, Quarantine, Routine, Routine..." Vritra was flying across the forest, but soon he paused and found himself standing in front of the temple back in Dunshire Kingdom.

"Huh? Routine? Why was I saying that—Oh right, I need to follow my routine and kill demons to level—FUCK!! This darned mythic halo, it’s playing with the circuits of my brain. Just don’t let me catch you, you cowardly halo."

Vritra cursed, feeling angry at the sudden changes in his own behavior and memory. It was so frustrating.

And the more time he spent in this strange space, the easier it got for him to fall into the trap. Even his skills and soul wraiths couldn’t be of any help in such a situation. Instead, the soul wraiths might end up causing more trouble.

"Haa... Wifey, what if I just destroy everything?" Vritra asked, controlling his anger as he calmed down once again.

"No, this mythic halo especially plays with your emotions. Try to be as calm as you can. You don’t actually want to kill Diana accidentally, right?

You won’t even know it and you might really end up destroying an entire city, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people under its influence without even knowing anything. So just stay calm." Yasmine advised, even though she herself felt frustrated with this situation.

A mythic halo is powerful enough to even affect the Gods, so even she wasn’t of much help in this situation.

"Hmm... I understand, let’s do this." Vritra tried his best to remember his original motive as he started walking forward into the familiar temple, and was surprised to see a sight he could never forget.

Diana was standing there with a haughty look, and all the confused teenagers were looking around. It was exactly the time when they were pulled—or rather kidnapped—into this new world.

Vritra saw Vanessa standing in the midst of the crowd. She was looking around and upon seeing Vritra, the beautiful milf smiled and waved her hand: "Honey, I am here."

Vritra looked down at himself and found that he was back in his school uniform, and then he found himself standing beside his mother while looking at the goddess in confusion.

"Huh? What’s going on? Am I forgetting something?" he wondered, but Vanessa grasped his hand and spoke in a relaxing tone: "Don’t worry, honey, I am right here with you."

Vritra nodded and then fixed his gaze on the goddess who seemed familiar yet completely new. He had a sinking feeling in his heart that something was wrong, but he just couldn’t grasp that thought.

"In the name of fucking gods, look at her!" Raino spoke.

"She’s... she’s incredibly gorgeous! Is this some kind of setup? And where has my phone disappeared off to? Fuck, I just bought the expensive one last week." Another boy added.

"Where are we? What is the meaning of all this? How did we suddenly arrive here?" Mia, their teacher, stepped forward and asked.

"You have all been chosen," Diana began to speak. Her haughty gaze swept through the entire crowd.

Vritra had a feeling of déjà vu. He frowned and tried hard to think what exactly he was missing. He completely ignored the words of the people around him, but soon Vanessa tapped over his shoulder and spoke: "Honey, try looking at your status window."

"Yes, mom." Vritra nodded, as he opened the status window and started reading.

After looking at his stats, his gaze moved down to his seemingly trash skill—an ability to move around dust—and an unknown ability which didn’t really give any information.

He saw the slight blush over Vanessa’s face as she gazed at her status panel. She quickly closed it and carefully looked at her surroundings.

"Well done," Diana said. She smiled faintly and observed them all. "It seems you have all been blessed with incredible abilities. Some of you even received legendary ones."

She continued to praise Jack, Fiona, Max, and so on. Then a few of the students showed their concerns about the aspect of fighting against dangerous creatures, but Diana gave a lame excuse and silenced them.

"Vritra Arclis," Diana said, her voice cold and scornful, "Dust Manipulation. A most... unusual ability. Seems like you have obtained the worst ability in the entire group. It’s truly a pity—you aren’t suitable for any role."

And what followed was the mockery of his classmates. Everything seemed to flow in a manner that Vritra found way too familiar. Then they returned, and the next day headed to the labyrinth.

What followed was a betrayal and attempt at murder, which Vritra was unexpectedly expecting. Then came the death trap as he fought against those demons until he was on the verge of madness.

He fought there for months, doing his best to survive while devouring the demons. After five or so months, Vritra finally saw an invisible flame—

WHOOSH

All of a sudden, the illusion broke apart as Vritra found himself standing back in the familiar forest. The Misty Essence had entered his mind and was making him go through all that again, but it had not expected to meet the Nihil-Anima in his memories.

❖❖❖

Thanks for reading...