"Wh…. what just happened?"
Tim asked Langdon with bewildered expressions. This was a strange turn of events in which they found themselves in a completely different place. They both saw that there were countless reflections of them with the same bewildered expressions all around them.
They felt as if the images were near them one moment and very far the next. It was as if they were in a maze of broken mirrors adjusted at various angles that reflected their reflections multiple times. These confusing images could even be seen in the shattered mirror-like sky.
Both rankers decided to walk a few more steps ahead of them and the space around them became clearer. The self-reflections they saw all around them were only present in the shattered sky above their heads. But it was now looking like a real sky in terms of altitude instead of just a fake ceiling previously seen.
There was no air. No other sign of life. It was the eerie silence that made Tim and Langdon more nervous.
There was only one building located at a distance from where they stood. If Langdon had to guess, he would call it a library. But the building was too well preserved to be considered part of the ghost city's construction.
"This… this is spatial distortion."
Langdon spoke more to himself than to his pal Tim. His mana sense spread in every direction as he raised his vigilance. Then he carefully walked towards the library building while adding up.
Tim, I once read about this space anomaly. I think we accidentally entered a…"
Langdon was going to label the incident as an accident. But then he remembered the guy they were pursuing was nowhere to be found. Plus, he started to realize that Tuan was way too comfortable while being pursued like this by them.
'Something's wrong.'
Just when Tim had the premonition, Langdon spoke up.
"Tim… we need to…"
Boom!
Just when Langdon thought to retreat into the spatial tear they had come from, an explosion sounded behind them. To their shock, they saw that the spatial tear was closing up.
A figure shot through the now-closing spatial tear like an arrow coated in purple lightning and landed at a distance from them. When the two rankers adjusted their vision, they saw a familiar face staring back at them with a smile on his face.
"Tuan?"
Tim recognized that it was Tuan who was last to enter the place even when it was him they were chasing. The situation indicated that the guy was already prepared for spatial distortion to take place even when it was invisible to the naked eye and mana sense.
'He… he brought us here.'
An alarm bell rang in both Tim and Langdon's heads.
Tim cast his animated spells once again without any delay. This time, since his mana circuits were already active by the same spell, it didn't take long for him to conjure eight serpents. He continued with the usual setup he had come to familiarize himself with. Four serpents for his defense and the remaining four for the offense.
Langdon also thought that an anomaly like this made their mana binding contract null and void. He didn't have to keep himself away from the fight anymore.
Langdon also cast his spells and created a tornado of water around him. He also pulled out a bladeless sword hilt from his storage space. When he poured his mana into it, the runes etched onto the hilt lit up and a blade made of water element mana was formed that reflected the sunlight in multi-color.
"You… you planned this, didn't you? What are your motives? And how do we get out of here?"
Langdon asked while raising his sword in front of him in a defensive stance. He looked at Tim who also understood his gesture. They both needed to stick together to handle this cunning guy and whatever he had set up for them.
Both Langdon and Tim thought that Tuan was after their Titus points, not realizing the graveness of the situation they were in. They also assumed that this was yet another safe drop location that could be found using the clues spread around in the subspace dedicated to the competition.
Tuan smiled mirthlessly at them before responding.
"Maybe there's a treasure to be found in the debris of my shipwreck. I hadn't set this up, boys. No matter how two-faced I might be, I'm telling the truth this time. But life happens when you are busy making plans.
Now all I can do is get on board with whatever my circumstances throw at me. I hope you don't blame me. And I'd understand even if you did."
Tuan drew his two swords and spoke. However, he held an Andruil sword in one hand and a different sword in the other. His face and stature also started changing all of a sudden while his facial skin stretched and created a different face.
Within a few moments, Tuan changed into a completely different person. Even his mana signature changed into something Tim and Langdon both weren't familiar with.
The butcher soon resumed his normal appearance and looked at them with the same mild smile Tuan had given them. The right half of his body was covered in lightning-element mana as he was holding Rigor Mortis with his right hand. His left hand was holding Anduril, making his left side covered in fire-element mana.
This was the first time Eren could wield two of the elements he had been familiar with, with such ease and proficiency. He concluded that focusing on fire-element spells and not using the lightning element at all had somehow fixed the misbalance he never knew he had. Assuming Tuan's role was paying dividends in a manner the butcher couldn't have imagined.
"What in the world…."
Tim couldn't help but mumble at the phenomenon he was seeing. The warning bells in his head kept on ringing. But he was as prepared to face Tuan as he could be. So there was nothing that could be done about it.
Langdon saw Tuan turn into Eren and for some reason, his forehead glittered in sweat all of a sudden. He steeled his heart, clenched his fists, and spoke with all the bravado he could muster from within him.
"You are not Tuan, are you? If you don't back off now, we will press the emergency switches we have on our wristbands…"
Eren shook his head in denial before cutting Langdon off.
"The wristbands don't work here. I was here the whole time last night. So I know and can confirm."
Eren said and smirked before adding up.
"My point is, you are all stuck here together until I kill you both off. We can debate over the hows and whys of the whole thing if you want to.
But that's not going to change the outcome for you. You had your chance to pull back from being the obstacle in my plan before. But not anymore."
