"Pfft..." Evelyn put a hand over her mouth, holding back a chuckle. "That’s the spirit of innovation. But in the end, it’s just a gimmick. If you’re planning on using your body for everything, then I might as well roll my sleeves up and knock you out here and now."
Rael rolled his eyes, not saying anything. He felt like the more he talked, the more Evelyn would get in his head, and as things stood, all he needed inside his mind right now was happy thoughts.
Very happy thoughts...
All of a sudden, chains appeared around his arms. They came out of the ground and held on tightly. For some reason, he couldn’t break out of them with just his physical strength alone, almost as if Evelyn had put some kind of special property on them.
Since he didn’t have much time to ponder it, he went ahead and summoned a single floating bolt cutter.
The bolt cutter hovered over the chains, and with a single thought, it closed in, breaking the chains that tied each of his hands. And of course, he did all that with just 3 Mental Integrity, compared to the 25 Evelyn used to cast the chains.
It seemed like he was off to a good start, but he knew that in a game where they had to drain each other’s Mental Integrity to 0, starting at 10,000 was significant.
As expected, Evelyn decided to pick up the pace. However, the way she picked it up was a little...
A giant tank appeared in front of him. Instead of the usual cannon, there was a literal railgun aimed at him.
The tip of the railgun was visibly heating up, and in the nick of time, Rael thought of something that could counter this.
After all, a railgun uses electromagnetism, so Rael went with something simple.
A giant magnet suddenly appeared above the tank, disrupting the railgun cannon. At first, it looked like it had simply turned off, but that was when the railgun suddenly fired, self-destructing and blowing the entire tank up.
Fire and debris rained down on the arena, but when it reached the trees, it simply bounced off. When he turned toward Gaia, he noticed she had a slight smirk on her face as she continued caressing the Angel Egg.
"Hmm... A good choice, though I was half expecting you to go with some sort of nuzzle," Evelyn remarked playfully. "Or maybe a giant sponge that would block the attack...? Oh well, you dealt with it regardless, but I think that’s enough warm-up, don’t you?"
The moment she finished speaking, Rael’s vision darkened. But when it returned, he found himself surrounded by hundreds of mirrors, all aimed toward him. Even the sky was one giant mirror.
He was confused for a moment, but when he checked how much Mental Integrity she spent, he knew he had to start taking this seriously. Nᴇw ɴovel chaptᴇrs are published on N0v3l.Fiɾe.net
She’s definitely switching to mental warfare, Rael mused, glancing around. Mirrors...
However, his gaze soon landed on one mirror in particular that was only a few meters away from him.
He saw the reflection of a green-eyed woman with black hair, just like his as Rael Altros. The woman was none other than Melissa, his sister.
It seemed like she was trying to reach out, so out of instinct, Rael approached the mirror with steady steps.
Melissa put her palm on the mirror, and after a brief moment of hesitation, Rael put his hand on it too. Even if he knew she wasn’t real, just seeing her every now and again was worth more to him than he would ever care to admit.
She mouthed a few words, but since he wasn’t that good at reading lips, he couldn’t tell what she said. But before long, she gave him a soft smile and backed away.
His gaze didn’t leave her figure, and after what happened next, he really wished he had looked away.
A being that resembled Solenne appeared behind Melissa, and without an ounce of hesitation, she gripped Melissa’s head, crushing it instantly. Blood exploded against the mirror, dyeing it completely red.
Rael clenched his fists and looked away. This trick was cheap, and he knew something along these lines would happen, but alas, he fell for it anyway.
Just as he was about to counter Evelyn’s turn, he spotted a couple more figures in the mirrors.
He saw Zafira, Lilith, Linlin, and all the other people he had grown somewhat close to. Yet behind each of them stood Solenne who, just like with his sister, placed her hand on their heads and crushed them.
Yet Rael looked away before that could happen, not wanting to see any more.
By looking away, Rael realized his turn had ended nearly 14 seconds ago, and because of that...
Shit... I need to focus... How am I still getting emotional over something so fake? Rael thought with a scowl and thought of a counter.
However, that was when Evelyn’s effect kicked in. The Solennes that were trapped inside of the mirrors suddenly stepped out, all of them holding the decapitated bodies of the people he cared about.
Even more surprising, these Solennes could speak.
"My my... For someone cosplaying as a bigshot, you sure don’t have the balls to pull through, huh?"
"Watching as those you care about die, and you don’t do anything? Hahahaha..."
"No wonder everyone forgot you. A spineless coward such as yourself does not deserve to be remembered..."
"Damn..." Rael sighed. "Even when you’re not real, you manage to piss people off effortlessly."
With those words, Rael proceeded to summon something simple that could deal with all these mirrors at once.
But he soon realized Evelyn’s mirror effect did more than taunt him, as his Mental Integrity dipped significantly.
Nonetheless, a tuning fork appeared in his hands, and right as he was about to ring it, the tuning fork turned to glitter.
A frown appeared on his face, and before long, Evelyn’s voice rang out throughout the mirror room.
"Turn-based doesn’t mean I have to politely wait for you to finish whatever you’re doing. The moment you manifested that tuning fork, your turn was over, dear Rael."