"If you could’ve done this from the start, why bother waiting so long?" Rael asked warily.
"Why else? Giving someone false hope when they seem so confident is like the cherry on top. And no, I’m not sadistic, I just believe that getting a beating is the best type of training," Evelyn replied with a chuckle.
"Training? Are you training me now?" Rael mused.
But of course, it seemed like she didn’t mean a single word as she purposefully waited for his turn’s timer to run out.
All the while, he had to listen to Solenne taunting him from the side.
"You know I saw you, right?"
"I saw when you were inside my mind..."
"How could I not have? You were so lively in there, using all sorts of manipulation tactics, and all of that was within my grasp... Pfft..."
This sounds so realistic, Rael thought with a sigh and decided on his next move.
He summoned a wind-up music box as it plopped down onto the ground innocently.
But despite his expectations, Evelyn didn’t destroy it like she had done a moment ago. Instead, she summoned a miniature hand and began cranking up the music box.
Music began to play shortly after, sending an uncomfortable chill down Rael’s spine.
"A music box that emits a high-frequency sound when destroyed. It would’ve been enough to destroy the mirrors. It’s not a bad idea," Evelyn said, giggling. "But are you sure you want to go down this path of small counters? You’re just letting me lead the entire course of this battle."
He understood that as well. However, Rael’s mind was conflicted, mainly because he wasn’t sure what to summon to counter her once and for all.
The 10 seconds are fine... But even if I counter this, something else would come right after... So what can I do?
Soon enough, his eyes widened as he got a risky idea.
But in the end, that risky idea was just what he needed, so he decided to go through with it.
Instead of something physical, Rael summoned a reflective barrier inside his mind, so every bit of mental warfare Evelyn had just tried to use against him was rendered useless.
After all, he also manifested an illusion inside his mind where instead of Solenne, he saw a few golden retrievers barking at him.
As for the corpses of those he cared about, Rael simply deleted them from his mind. And thankfully, it worked. Mental strain stopped draining his Mental Integrity, and now, it was once again Evelyn’s turn.
"A mind barrier, huh...? I guess that’s not too bad. A bit early for resistances, though."
With those words, she suddenly expended a big chunk of her Mental Integrity.
In an instant, the mirrors vanished and were soon replaced by a raging battlefield. To Rael’s surprise, this was the same battlefield he had seen when he first arrived in this world.
It was the battlefield where he had encountered the Supreme Beast for the first time, and also the place where he got his main quest.
However, there was no Supreme Beast in sight. Only a few soldiers running around frantically, trying their best to salvage what few weapons there were on the battlefield.
But among those many weapons, there were guns. Before he could figure out what was happening, he heard a loud whistle coming from the distance.
He glanced up, his eyes widening as a fighter jet suddenly came into view, alongside four missiles that headed toward him.
Rael didn’t waste any time as he proceeded to try his best to run away. Yet he soon realized that his physical abilities weren’t the same as in reality, and because of that, he was forced to use his Mental Integrity.
Using 500 Mental Integrity, he summoned a giant dome around himself. Just in time, the missiles appeared in his sight, right about to slam into his dome.
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By using 100 Mental Integrity, Evelyn made the missiles directly go through the dome.
It seemed like he had made a blunder by putting too much Mental Integrity into the barrier, as it was now useless. But he looked on the bright side that while he spent 500 Mental Integrity, Evelyn now had to spend 100 Mental Integrity just to get past it.
But still, with the missiles only mere centimeters away from his body, Rael opted for the simple option of copying Evelyn’s earlier strategy.
And of course, he did that by turning the missiles into glitter that splattered against him. But he immediately noticed a problem.
200? Why is it so expensive? Rael wondered, shocked. It barely cost her anything... unless...
"Hahaha..." Evelyn’s laughter resounded once again. "Your expression tells me all your thoughts. It’s not a good habit, but it’s pretty cute."
"Though, as you might expect, phasing through your dome isn’t all I’ve done to the missiles," Evelyn continued. "So what will you do now? If you continue as is, you’re going to lose Mental Integrity, and a lot of it, I might add."
Having said that, Rael heard more whistling in the sky, but not only that, the soldiers that had been previously scrambling around the battlefield suddenly aimed their guns at him.
There were even some railguns, which would definitely break this dome faster.
So in the end, Rael really wasn’t left with any more choices here except to match her expenditure.
But for some reason, as the missiles and bullets neared him, he didn’t see the pop-up saying that Evelyn took her turn.
That meant as long as it was technically her turn, Rael couldn’t do anything until the 10 seconds were up.
So on that end, Rael could do nothing but stare as the projectiles approached the dome.
And finally, those projectiles made contact with the dome.