The misty essence retreated at lightning speed. All mythic halos were afraid of Nihil-Anima, even the 2nd-ranked mythic halo, so how could the misty essence not be?
Despite consuming so many souls and soul potions, Nihil-Anima wasn’t even back to a quarter of its total strength, yet just its presence scared the misty essence.
"Haa... What the hell, I just went through all that experience all over again. This misty essence could seriously make the mind into a mess," Vritra panted lightly, as he finally remembered everything.
It was more powerful than Yasmine made it seem. It was better than any sort of hypnosis, and the illusion it created was near real.
"Can you hear me again?" Yasmine’s voice sounded. It seemed she had been calling continuously.
"Yeah. How long have I been controlled by this halo?" Vritra said as he looked around and saw the destruction in the forest he had just caused. Thankfully, the strength he just used was minimal.
"It’s only been a few minutes, but suddenly you started attacking everything. Are you okay now?" Yasmine asked, finding the misty essence was getting harder to deal with by the moment.
That thing was just too sly.
"Yes, I am fine. Anyway, that thing seemed really shocked upon sensing Nihil-Anima, so it won’t try to control my mind again so casually," Vritra said, feeling relieved. If Nihil-Anima was at full strength, then he could have directly subdued the misty essence mythic halo.
"That’s good. Still, be careful. Will Diana be fine though?" Yasmine mumbled.
It was as if the concept of time didn’t exist in this place.
***
Just as the blinding light had come, Diana was startled, and she too extended her hand towards Vritra. But the space in front of her felt empty for a moment, then she finally got a hold of his hand.
"What was that?" Diana rubbed her eyes and looked around before fixing her gaze on Vritra and looking at him strangely.
’That’s not Vritra...’ Her senses were exceptionally sharp—after all, being a goddess has its perks. She let go of his hand and created some distance.
"Who are you?" Diana asked, as she clenched her fists and holy energy started to burst out of her body.
She didn’t like fighting all that much, but if she went all out and borrowed power directly from the gods, then her strength would grow exponentially for a period of time.
"What’s wrong, Diana? It is me. Why are you acting like that suddenly?" Vritra spoke as he started approaching her. All of a sudden, his expression changed as he pulled out a sword and plunged it in her direction while screaming, "Die, you vile goddess!"
A black shadow suddenly twisted and took form in front of Diana, as a dark sorcerer came into view.
The Hellmancer repelled the sword with its staff and then thrust the staff into Vritra’s chest, killing him instantly as he broke into powder and fell apart.
"Oh!!" Diana exclaimed upon seeing the Hellmancer and then seeing the fake Vritra die. She was sure at least this soul wraith was real.
"Hell!! So master sent you to protect me. Hehe..." Even in this dangerous situation, Diana felt funny in her belly becoming his love interest and someone he wanted to protect.
"Let’s move," Hellmancer said in its rough voice, a robe of darkness covering its body.
"Yes!!" Diana happily nodded. It finally felt that she had become a part of the family, and her importance had increased.
The two continued to venture forward, and it wasn’t long before Diana was trapped in the illusion. It was a situation where she had become a true god, one of the strongest beings she knew of.
The Hellmancer wasn’t affected by the illusions—it was made by the Nihil-Anima, so the misty essence was a little hesitant to get close to it.
While the goddess was going through all sorts of her fantasies, she even saw the Great Demon Vritra marrying her, as the two became entities even above the gods.
Hellmancer soon brought Diana back to her feet, as the dream-like state broke and she blinked her eyes only to again get struck in another illusion—this time of when she first met Vritra.
Shaking its head, Hellmancer began to babysit the goddess as he kept waking her up while searching for Vritra or a way to get out of there.
Diana was acting really strange. Sometimes she would start attacking Hellmancer, sometimes she would start running, then she would start speaking, laughing, or would just lie down on the ground and start sleeping.
"Masterrrr, where are you? Sob I am going crazy..." Diana was desperately looking for Vritra, at least when she was sane and not in an illusion.
In the next moment: "Muahaha Mortals, kneel!!"
Hellmancer moved across the endless and timeless space for what felt like hours, bringing along the goddess who seemed to have gone mad.
Each time Hellmancer brought her out of the illusion, she would get incredibly embarrassed and would soon start acting up.
Even after so long, the dark sorcerer wasn’t able to find anything. It was like they were just roaming around in circles.
Although Hellmancer’s mind wasn’t affected by the illusion, the entire surroundings—everything—was created and being controlled by the mythic halo, so it seemed impossible to get out of there.
***
After walking for more than five hours, Vritra finally saw a large door.
Thankfully, the mystic halo was no longer messing with his mind, but all its creations were still way too realistic, and Vritra didn’t have a choice but to walk in the direction the mythic halo wanted him to.
Looking at the large door that seemed to be made of some sort of ancient wood, Vritra pondered and spoke, "Wifey, do you think I should go inside? It feels like such an obvious trap, but I can’t think of any other place where the misty essence might be hiding."
"Yeah, this is definitely a trap, and misty essence certainly knows that we have no choice but to head inside.
Still, it might or might not be inside. This is too risky... Let’s go inside and check it. It’s not like we have any other choice," Yasmine said, becoming more cautious.
Vritra kept his nether eye activated as he started walking forward, carefully and slowly. Then, creating a large hand of dust, he pushed the door forward. Despite their size, it was rather easy to move them.
Even after the door opened, Vritra wasn’t able to see anything inside. It was like endless white light was coming from the inside, making all senses useless.
"Haa... Here goes nothing. Who could have thought a normal sex session with a goddess would end up like this?
By the way, is this considered good luck that it opened exactly when I was here before the others could even notice, or bad luck that I got trapped like this?" he spoke. In this place, it was really hard to keep track of time.
"Whatever it may be, we are going to get out of here," Yasmine said with determination. Since the misty essence couldn’t control Vritra, then it must have labelled him as a great threat which needed to be eliminated immediately.
Finally, Vritra walked into the door.
❖❖❖
Thanks for reading...